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THE 

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Sometime Professor in the Imperial 

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WITH 40 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 




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PREFACE 

I WISH to express my thanks to the heads and sub- 
ordinates of the various departments and bureaus 
of the Dominion Government, at Ottawa, for the assist- 
ance rendered in procuring afresh much of the material 
used in preparing this book. I add my thanks to many 
ofl&cials of provinces and cities who displayed kindly 
interest in my effort and also gave assistance. The 
number of individuals who helped me in many ways is 
too great for me to name all of them; and if I mention 
Arthur George Doughty, Esq., C.M.G., LL.D., Deputy 
Minister and Dominion Archivist, and Martin J. Griffin, 
Esq., C.M.G., LL.D., Parliamentary Librarian, it must 
not be assumed that the others are not gratefully remem- 
bered. Let me say "Thank you" to the Canadian 
people. 

The officials of the great railway systems have been 
most liberal in supplying the photographs which have 
been reproduced as illustrations, and most generous in 
allowing me to make such use of the pictures. In the 
list of illustrations letters indicate from whence the origi- 
nal photographs came. Here I say that D.I. indicate 
those reproduced by permission of F. F. C. Lynch, Esq., 
Superintendent, Railway Land Branch, Department of 
the Interior; I.C., those reproduced by permission of 



Vi PREFACE 

the Intercolonial Railway of Canada; G.T., those repro- 
duced by permission of the Grand Trunk or the Grand 
Trunk Pacific; C.P., those reproduced by permission 
of the Canadian Pacific; C.N., those reproduced by 
permission of the Canadian Northern. That they add 
much to the interest of the book need not be stated. 

I wish I could feel that I have done justice to my 
subject; I can truthfully say I have done my best. 

J. K. G. 



CHAPTER 
I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 
V. 

VI. 

VIL 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Early History i 

Colonisation — The Folklore of Canada 17 

The Beginning of New France ... 27 

The Great Hudson's Bay Company . . 47 
Conflict: Wars in America between 

France and England 64 

The Dominion of Canada 83 

The Government of Canada and Cognate 

Subjects 94 

The Wealth of Canada no 

Physical Canada 127 

Ca-nada for the Tourist and the Sports- 
man 138 

Canada and the United States . . . 150 

The Lure of Canada 164 

Development of Railways 177 

The Great St. Lawrence Basin . . . 192 

The Canadian Rocky Mountains . . . 205 

The Hudson Bay Territory 215 

The Canadian Wheat Fields .... 229 

A Model Province: Manitoba .... 239 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIX. Canada in Winter 249 

XX. Some Canadian Towns 261 

XXI. A Few Canadians 271 

XXn. Reciprocity 281 

XXIII. Canada and the British Empire ... 291 

Bibliography 301 

Index 305 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Turn Turn Range. Canadian Northern Railway . . . Frontispiece ^ 

Boat Landing, Tete Jaune Cache, Fraser River, British 

Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway . . Facing page 6 <^ 

Laying Rails, Tete Jaune, British Columbia, July 17, 191 2. 

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 6 ^ 

Restigouche Club House, Metapedia River, New Brunswick. 

Intercolonial Railway 10 '^' 

Entrance to Resplendent Valley, British Columbia. Grand 

Trunk Pacific Railway 16 ^ 

"Pierced Rock." From Steamer, Intercolonial Railway ... 241^ 

Preparing Fish, Pierced Rock, New Brunswick. Intercolonial 

Railway 24 sv' 

Meadow Land, British Columbia. Canadian Northern Rail- 
way 34 ^ 

Fording Moose River, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific 

Railway 34 ^ 

Canadian Northern Railway Elevator, Capacity 7,500,000 

bushels. Port Arthur, Ontario 44 *^ 

Beach at Little Metis, Quebec Province. Intercolonial Rail- 
way 44 

Prince Rupert Harbour. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway ... 60 ^ 

On Moose Trail River, British Columbia. Grand Trunk 

Pacific Railway 60 ^ 

Farm Scene, Bic, Rimouski County, Quebec Province. Inter- 
colonial Railway 68 1/ 

Orchards at Summerland, British Columbia. Canadian 

Pacific Railway 84 ^ 

Mount Robson and Berg Lake, British Columbia. Grand 

Trunk Pacific Railway 92 1/ 

Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick. Intercolonial Railway . . 100 ^ 

Wheat Field and Summer Fallow, Saskatchewan. Grand 

Trunk Pacific Railway no ^ 



X ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAQE 

Berg Lake, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 120 v 
Mount Robson, altitude 13,700 feet. Grand Trunk Pacific 

Railway 128 »^ 

From Echo Rock, Lake Cecebe. Grand Trunk Railway 

System 140 ,y 

Fishing Camp, Northern Quebec Province. Canadian 

Pacific Railway 146 ^ 

Speckled Trout Fishing, Algonquin National Park. Grand 

Trunk Railway System 146 ^ 

Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific 

Railway 150/ 

Fossil Hunting, Mt. Robson District, British Columbia. 

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 158 i 

Transport, Athabaska River, 56 40' N 160 i^^ 

Transport, Athabaska River 160 , 

Typical Saskatchewan Valley Homestead. Canadian 

Northern Railway 166^ 

Portage La Loche, Peace River Country, Athabaska .... 194 Z' 

Potato Crop, Lake La Loche, 56 30' N 194 "^ 

Hudson Bay Post, Lake Athabaska, 59 N 224 ♦- 

Clearwater River, Athabaska River, 57 N 224 <y 

Reaping Oats, Western Canada. Canadian Pacific Railway . 228 t, 
Waterfront Terminals, Port Arthur, Ontario. Canadian 

Northern Railway 240 »/- 

Ploughing at Fort Smith, 60 N 250 >■ 

Smith Landing, Great Slave River, 60 N 250 v- 

Empress Hotel and Harbour, Victoria, Vancouver Island, 

British Columbia. Canadian Pacific Railway 268 

On Skeena River, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific 

Railway 268 

Mt. Stephen and Mt. Stephen House, Field, British Columbia. 

Canadian Pacific Railway 270 V'' 

Emperor Falls, Grand Fork River, British Columbia. Grand 

Trunk Pacific Railway 280 



/ 



THE COMING CANADA 



CHAPTER I 
EARLY HISTORY 

I DO not intend to limit myself to the Canada of 
which most people think when they hear or speak 
the word. That narrow use of the name generally 
includes no more than the eastern provinces, Nova 
Scotia, New Brunswick, etc., the lower St. Lawrence 
basin, and a strip of indefinite width, north of the United 
States boundary, reaching westward to the province of 
British C olumbia and the Pacific shores. 

The Dominion of Canada, to my mind, includes the 
whole of the 3,603,910 square miles, approximated, from 
the long Atlantic seaboard, stretching from Cape Chud- 
leigh, at the extreme northern end of Labrador, to Cape 
Sable, the southernmost end of Nova Scotia, to the 
Alaskan boundary, and from the United States frontier 
northward far into Arctic regions. 

I shall, probably, include the island of Newfoundland 
in my consideration of the early history of the Dominion, 
because that island is so intimately associated with the 
beginnings of European effort to establish colonies in 
the New World. It is true that Newfoundland is not 
a part of the Dominion, and, if I may depend upon the 



2 THE COMING CANADA 

vehement declarations of the islanders with whom I 
have discussed the possibility of entering the Dominion, 
as well as those of many other Canadians, it is extremely 
unlikely that the island will give up its semi-independ- 
ence. 

In this broad view of the Dominion of Canada, we 
must, of course, think of the bleak, inhospitable Labrador 
as being a part thereof, and its earhest history antedates 
that of what I may, just for convenience, call Canada 
proper. Yet, at the very outset, I must say that obser- 
vation and investigation, as well as the statements of 
others, justify the opinion that Labrador may erelong 
prove to be not altogether the abomination of desola- 
tion that the name usually connotes. 

The historian may well take a good deal of comfort 
from the fact that recent research and effort have tended 
to increase our knowledge of what the brave, indeed 
venturesome, sailors of northwestern Europe did several 
hundred years before Christopher Columbus sailed from 
Palos, Spain, on the 3rd of August, 1492, to try to find a 
direct westward route to the Far East. Reference to 
the bibliography at the end of this volume may serve 
to emphasise what I have just written, and the titles 
of some of the books there mentioned may prove an 
incentive to learn yet more of these earhest precursors 
of Columbus, the discoverer of the New World, and of 
Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of Canada. 

It has long been admitted by historians that sailors 
from the north of Europe crossed the Atlantic Ocean, 
at least as far as Iceland, several hundred years before 
the beginning of the eleventh century of our era. That 



EARLYHISTORY 3 

island had, of course, long been known to Europeans, 
even when the Irish Culdees, those primitive and 
enthusiastic monks, made their way across the sea in 
the sixth or seventh century, seeking to secure abso- 
lute solitude for their meditations. If those monks 
carried with them a form of Christianity untainted by 
the influence of the Romish schism, the purity cannot 
have persisted very long. The hope, cherished for some 
time, by certain Protestants — Presbyterians especially 
— that in Iceland there had been preserved an abso- 
lutely primitive Christianity, has long since been dis- 
pelled. Just when Rome asserted supremacy in those 
regions, then so remote from European centres, is not 
clear, but in 1492, the very year of Columbus' first 
voyage. Pope Alexander VI issued a Bull * appointing 
a bishop of the see of Gardar, in Greenland. From 
about the middle of the eleventh century, Iceland had 
two bishops and doubtless from them went forth the 
influence into Greenland. But inasmuch as the entire 
population of the island now belongs to the Lutheran 
Church, it is evident that shortly after the Reformation 
the Roman Church lost its hold in Iceland. 

From Iceland to Greenland is such a short span, it 
is inconceivable that those hardy Norsemen did not 

* Bulla; the most authoritative official document issued by the pope 
of the Roman Catholic Church, or in his name. It is usually an open 
letter containing some decree, order, or decision relating to matters of 
grace or justice. It derives its name from the lead seal (Latin bulla) 
appended to it by a thread or band, which is red or yellow when the 
bull refers to matters of grace, and uncoloured and of hemp when it 
refers to matters of justice. On one side of the seal is the name of the 
pope who issues the bull, and on the other are the heads of Saints Paul 
and Peter. 



4 THE COMING CANADA 

soon cross the intervening sea. But even after it was 
discovered, Greenland was for a long time supposed to 
be a remarkable extension westward of the continent 
of Europe; and this belief was, for some centuries, 
strengthened rather than refuted by the experience 
of the explorers who, in the early years of the sixteenth 
century, reasoned that because the coast trended back- 
ward, that is towards the east, from Cape Dan, it would 
eventually join the European mainland. 

Greenland may have been seen by the Norwegian 
Gunnbjorn, son of Ulf Kraka, very early in the tenth 
century; at least he is alleged to have declared he did 
so. It is admitted that in 982 a.d., ''Eric the Red 
(Eiriki hinn randi Thorvaldsson) sailed from Iceland to 
find the land which Gunnbjorn had seen, and he spent 
three years on its southwestern coasts exploring the 
country." Eric returned to Iceland in 985, and there 
is no accepted tradition that he or any of his followers 
crossed Davis Straits; but from what we know of the 
habits of the Greenland Eskimo, it is not unreasonable 
to suppose that those people knew of the land to the 
westward and told Eric about it. 

But his son, Leifr Eriksson (Leif Ericsson of history) 
visited the Court of Norway in 999, when King Olaf 
Tryggvason was on the throne, and told the monarch 
about the new land in the far west. When Leif left 
Norway the king commanded him to proclaim Chris- 
tianity in Greenland; the name having been chosen 
with the purpose of deceiving people into beheving that 
the new country was an attractive place for colonists. 
It was on this outward voyage in 1000 a.d., when 



EARLYHISTORY 5 

bound for Greenland direct, without touching at Ice- 
land, that Leif's ship was driven out of her course by 
heavy weather, and eventually reached the continent 
of North America, where he found wheat growing wild, 
vines, and "mosur" (maple ?) trees. To this yet newer 
land he gave the name *'Vinland," ^'Vineland,'^ or 
^'Wineland the Good." 

It is, however, to the account of Thorfinn Karlsefni's 
(flourished 1002 to 1007) expedition and his attempt 
to estabUsh a colony somewhere in the region of Nova 
Scotia, that we must turn for the most plausible story 
of these early Norse discoverers. This twentieth century 
has added considerably to the Hterature that deals with 
the subject of the Saga of Eric the Red, and that known 
as The Flatey Book. The former is the more consistent 
of the two, and may now be read in an English transla- 
tion, accompanied by copious notes. These sagas are 
supplemented, and their history measurably verified, 
by the narrative of Adam of Bremen, a student of history, 
who ''visited the Danish Court during the reign of the 
well-informed monarch Svend Estridsson (1047 to 1076) 
and writes that the king ' spoke of an island (or country) 
in that ocean discovered by many, which is called 
Vinland, because of the wild grapes {vites) that grow 
there, out of which a very good wine can be made. 
Moreover, that grain unsown grows there abundantly 
(Jruges ihi non seminatas abundare) is not a fabulous 
fancy, but is based on trustworthy accounts of the 
Danes.'" * This passage offers important corroboration 
of the Icelandic accounts of the Vinland voyages, and 

* J. E. Olson, Enc. Brit. Xlth, ed. 



^ 



THE COMING CANADA 



is, further, interesting as the only undoubted refer- 
ence to Vinland in a mediaeval book written beyond 
the limits of the Scandinavian world." * 

It is contended by some writers that these Norse 
discoveries exerted no real influence upon European 
knowledge of the world's geography in the Middle 
Ages, and that undoubtedly is a fact. It is declared 
that whatever information there was about new lands 
in the remote west (from Europe) was hidden away in 
sagas which very recent research has brought to light, 
translated, and edited so that we of the twentieth 
century possess knowledge which was not imparted to 
many Europeans of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
This, too, is quite correct; but if Adam of Bremen, 
"beyond the limits of the Scandinavian world," knew 
of Vinland, there was no substantial reason why others 
should not have had the same knowledge. 

The suspicion is growing unto something approxi- 
mating conviction that the famous navigators of the 
south of Europe ignored the efforts of the Norsemen, 
and persistently held that the Western Ocean washed 
the shores of Asia and that it was a determination to 
demonstrate the correctness of that opinion, thus refuting 
the Norsemen, which influenced them. I am not dis- 
posed to belittle in any way the grand achievement of 
Christopher Columbus, nor woifld I detract at aU from 
the credit due to Giovanni Cabot; but I do think that 
had the exploits of Leif Ericsson and Thorfinn Karlesfni 
been given the publicity in Europe that they deserved, 
both the Italians, who have been named, would have 

* John Fiske, The Discovery of America. 




Boat Landing, Tete Jaune Cache, Fraser River, B. C. 




Laying Rails, Tete Jaune, B. C, July 17, 19 12 



EARLYHISTORY 7 

been in possession of information that would have 
assisted them materially. I do, however, take the 
responsibility of contradicting Mr. H. P. Biggar's state- 
ment, ''The European explorer who at the close of the 
fifteenth century first sighted that portion of North 
America subsequently called Canada, was Giovanni 
Cabot, of Genoa." * 

It may be objected that I am trying to judge Europeans 
of the fifteenth century from the standpoint of one who 
has all the advantage conferred by the knowledge gained 
in the whole of the intervening four hundred years. 
This I disclaim, although — as a matter of fact — I 
do not see how we to-day can have any real information 
about the earHest visitors from Europe to our North 
American shores, which might not have been secured 
by the European who would take the trouble to get it. 
We must remember, however, that towards the end of 
the fifteenth century all of southwestern Europe, includ- 
ing England, was keyed up to the highest pitch of 
excitement concerning geographical discoveries, and 
especially over-seas exploits, while there was strange 
apathy as to this subject when the Norsemen sailed 
across the Atlantic. Conditions were exactly reversed 
from what they had been about the year looo a.d. It 
was then northwestern Europe that was interested, 
while England, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy were 
indifferent. These states of affairs would tend to make 
the Norsemen's discoveries pass ahnost unnoticed; 
while they assured for Columbus' and Cabot's the 
utmost enthusiasm and pubKcity. 

* The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, Ottawa, 191 1. 



8 THE COMING CANADA 

Is it, furthermore, absolutely certain that those 
earliest Norse adventurers left no traces of their visits 
to North America? In 1908, Dr. Vilhjalmar Stefansson, 
of Norwegian ancestry although a Canadian by birth, 
and educated at Harvard, went down the Mackenzie 
River to its mouth; thence into Victoria Land, along 
both shores of Dolphin and Union Straits and Corona- 
tion Gulf, well to the eastward. In Victoria Land, 
almost the most inaccessible part of the Arctic Dominion, 
he found a previously unknown band of about two 
thousand blonde Eskimos; many of them have blue 
eyes, light eyebrows, and the men sandy beards. Their 
whole appearance differentiates them distinctly from 
the typical Eskimo. Their presence in that remote 
region — for it is alleged that their existence was not 
even suspected by the Dominion authorities — may be 
accounted for in several ways. Dr. Stefansson's own 
opinion is that they are descendants of the lost Scandi- 
navian colonists who had settled in Greenland about 
the year 1000 a.d. He admits the possibility that these 
people may owe their being to the visits of whalers and 
sailors to the Greenland coast in modern times; but he 
discredits this theory because *'in the summer time, when 
vessels were enabled to reach these regions, the Eskimos 
had pushed farther inland." Another cogent reason for 
giving these people a beginning far back of recent times, 
is the fact that they show no traces of European influ- 
ence, either physical (that is, disease,) or mental (that 
is, language). The former of these is, unhappily, the 
most conspicuous evidence of foreign association which 
ethnologists now find among unciviKsed peoples. 



EARLYHISTORY 9 

We must respect the recognised histories of Europe 
and admit that nothing was done towards western 
exploration for nearly five hundred years after the 
Norsemen had found Greenland and Vineland. If the 
curtain was raised for a moment, it was allowed to fall 
again so promptly and so effectually that the good lands 
were so completely forgotten as to make it seem as if 
they had never been known. 

The incentives to go out into the Western Ocean 
appear to have been the same with several would-be 
explorers, and it was a desire to secure a share of the 
rich trade with the Indies that seemed hkely to be held 
as a monopoly by the Portuguese, now that they had 
succeeded in finding a sea-road to the Far East. 

Before passing on to the facts accepted by historians 
of the discovery and occupation of Canada, it will be 
interesting to discuss briefly the efforts which were made 
prior to 1492 to discover something in the Atlantic 
which myth and legend declared to be there. In 1480 
an expedition was sent from Bristol, England, to dis- 
cover, if possible, the Island of Brazil, or the Island of 
the Seven Cities, or Antilia (Atlantis). Again, in 1491 
and 1492, vessels were sent from that same port for the 
same purpose. This last mentioned expedition, there 
is good reason to believe, was placed under the command 
of John Cabot. It gave him his English name. That 
nothing came of these efforts need not be stated; but 
they indicate clearly the opinion which prevailed in 
Europe in the fifteenth century as to there being some 
wonderful islands in the ocean far away from the main- 
land. So firm was this conviction that it was not until 



lO THE COMING CANADA 

1876 that "the official sepulture of the old tradition of 
the Island of Brazil took place." 

Returning to history, we find that in March, 1476, 
Giovanni Cabot was given the privilege of citizenship 
(we should call it "naturalised"), both internal and 
external, by the City of Venice, after fifteen years resi- 
dence. Inasmuch as the same privilege was granted his 
sons, the brothers Giovanni, Sebastiano, and Stephano, 
on the 28th of September, 1484, only six years later, 
it is reasonable to suppose that the father Giovanni was 
born some years before Christopher Colimibus, whose 
birth year is usually accepted as having been 1446 
(although we do not know this). 

Both Columbus and Cabot were firm believers in the 
theory that the earth is round. It will be remembered 
that this idea was not then endorsed by all navigators 
and cartographers: the reHgious danger of insisting 
upon it will also be known to all. Those two men were 
equally convinced that the rich merchandise and the 
coveted gems of the farther Indies, might be brought 
to western Europe in vessels crossing the Western Ocean 
direct from Asia. 

Cabot's conviction was based upon something more 
practical than Columbus' speculations. In a letter 
which Raimondo di Soncino wrote to the Duke of Milan, 
1 8th December, 1497,* there is given a brief account of 
Cabot's reasons for his belief. He claimed to have 
visited Mecca, "which city was then the greatest mart 
in the world for the exchange of goods of the west for 

* Original in the Reali Archivi di Stato, Milan. Translation in H. P. 
Biggar's The Precursors of Jacques Cariier. 



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EARLYHISTORY II 

those of the east." There is no doubt but that Cabot 
did make several trading voyages to the Levant, and that 
he inquired whence came those precious wares. He 
was told that they were brought by caravans from north- 
eastern Asia. Arguing that this meant Cipangu (Japan), 
he wished to make the attempt to reach that country 
by sailing westward from a port of Europe. 

The same reasons were assigned by Columbus for his 
desire to sail to the west, and with precisely the same 
results so far as reaching Japan was concerned; although 
the Indies which Columbus discovered served better 
to satisfy the preconceived notions of Cipangu, than did 
anything which Cabot found in the bleak north. 

Columbus' return in 1493 ^^^ ^i^ report that he had 
reached the Indies, created a great sensation at the 
English Court, and on the 5th of March, 1496, letters 
patent were issued by Henry VII granting to John Cabot, 
Lewis (the first son, otherwise known as Giovanni 2d), 
Sebastian, and Santino, his sons, authority to sail "to 
all parts, countries, and seas of the East, of the West, 
and of the North, under our banners and ensynes," 
but ''upon theyr own proper costs and charges." They 
were to take possession of all newly found lands in the 
king's name, and ''as often as they shall arrive at our 
port of Bristol, at the which port only they shall be 
holden to arrive," they were to pay unto the king, after 
deduction of their necessary expenses, "the fifth part of 
the gain of all fruits, profits, gaines and revenues accruing 
from said voyage." Comment upon the liberality (?) 
of this concession is unnecessary. 

Columbus having returned in June, 1496, from his 



12 THE COMING CANADA 

second voyage with much gold and valuable merchan- 
dise, the Enghsh king and the merchants who financed 
the enterprise, were hopeful that Cabot would meet with 
like success. On the 2nd of May, 1497, Cabot sailed 
from Bristol in a small vessel, the Mathew, with eighteen 
men in his company. Much controversy has been had 
as to the time and place of Cabot's landfall; but I think 
the Rt. Rev. M. F. Howley, Bishop of Newfoundland, 
has satisfactorily demonstrated that it was June 24th, 
1497, and that — after sighting Cape Farewell, Green- 
land — he steered westward (as he thought) , but be- 
cause of the remarkable variation of the compass needle, 
being then 66 1° West, and of the set of the ocean cur- 
rent, he actually took the true course from Cape Fare- 
well to St. John's, Newfoundland, although he supposed 
he was saiHng due west. This statement directly con- 
tradicts Mr. Biggar, who thinks the landfall was Cape 
Breton, but I must give my allegiance to the Bishop. 

Cabot was convinced that he had reached the north- 
eastern extremity of Asia, but conditions disappointed 
him greatly. He cruised to the southward and a little 
to the westward along the southern coast of Newfound- 
land. From Cape Race he shaped his course for Eng- 
land, arriving in Bristol harbour on Sunday, August 
6th, 1497. His enthusiasm led him to promise that on 
his next voyage he would reach Cipangu, and then 
"London would become a greater depot for species than 
Alexandria itself." 

In May, 1498, the second expedition, two vessels and 
three hundred men, sailed from Bristol. In their com- 
pany were several vessels that were engaged regularly 



EARLYHISTORY I3 

in the Iceland trade, fishing smacks probably. With 
Cabot was a Portuguese, Joao Fernandez, called Llav- 
rador, who had been from Iceland to Greenland in 1492. 
Early in June the east coast of Greenland was sighted, 
and inasmuch as Fernandez was the first to report the 
landfall, Cabot named the country ^'The Labrador's 
Land." The ships first cruised to the northward, but 
the increasing cold, the ice, and the fact that the land 
bore off to the eastward, discouraged Cabot and he 
turned westward again. 

After rounding Cape Farewell, he went up the west 
coast of Greenland to the Sukkertoppen district, in 
latitude 66°, and was again blocked by the ice. Altering 
his course once more, he sighted Baffin's Land, passed 
into Hudson's Straits, and then turned back and went 
along the coast of modern Labrador. The Strait of 
Belle Isle, between Labrador and Newfoundland, was 
assumed to be a bay, and the east coast of Newfound- 
land merely a prolongation of the Labrador coast. Some 
parts of the country that had been seen on the first 
voyage, were revisited; but the disappointment, at 
finding no evidence of the Wealth of Ind, was even greater 
than it had been before, although the expedition went 
as far south as 38°, nearly opposite the Capes of Chesa- 
peake Bay. Thence the course was shaped for home, 
and the reception accorded the explorers on their arrival 
at Bristol was nearly as frigid as the Greenland icebergs. 
The Enghsh king and merchants were disgusted with 
American exploration, and no further expeditions were 
sent from Bristol until 1501, and that was not led by 
the Cabots. 



14 THE COMING CANADA 

The Portuguese enterprise in 1 500, under the command 
of Caspar Corte Reale, achieved practically nothing 
new, and about the only evidence remaining of it are 
some geographical names. We may, too, pass by the 
Bristol venture of 1501, since it accomplished nothing 
beyond visiting Newfoundland. In 151 1, Spain entered 
the list of those seeking advantage in these northern 
parts of the North American continent, and during the 
next decade many European fishing vessels made yearly 
voyages to the Newfoundland Banks. 

In 1520, a Portuguese, Joao Alvares Fagundes, of 
Vianna (probably Vianna do Castillo in the province of 
Entre-Minho Eduardo) explored the coast of Nova 
Scotia as well as Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. He 
missed the chance to identify the Culf of St. Lawrence 
and perhaps discover the river. King Manoel gave 
Fagundes title to the islands from Chedabucto to Pla- 
centia bays; a grant that was simply productive of 
needless compHcation. In 1524-5, the Portuguese, 
Stephen Comez, although in command of a Spanish 
vessel, appHed to the Spanish Court for permission to 
seek, between Newfoundland and Florida, for a passage 
to the East Indies. He explored the coast as far south 
as the island of Nantucket, at least, and then went 
south to Santiago in Cuba, where he replenished his 
stores and then sailed for Corunna, reaching that port 
in Jime 1525. 

In 1527, two vessels, the Samson and the Mary Guild- 
ford, fitted out at London to try to find a northwest 
passage to the Far East by way of Davis Straits. The 
former ship probably foundered with all on board, since 



EARLYHISTORY 15 

nothing was ever heard of her. The latter did nothing 
to add to our fund of information, and when she returned 
to England is not known. From 1527 until Jacques 
Cartier began his explorations in 1534, fishing vessels 
visited the coasts of Canada, Newfoundland, and Green- 
land annually; but there are no authentic records of 
further attempts to find a northwest passage from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific until Cartier 's effort. Although 
unsuccessful in his prime desire, yet he was really the 
first European to discover the territory which was the 
nucleus of the great Dominion. 

In 1534, Jacques Cartier (sometimes written Quartier), 
an experienced navigator of St. Malo, France, was 
recommended to Francis I, King of France, as being 
competent to secure for his sovereign some advantage 
from the effort of his predecessor, Verrazzano. I have 
omitted previous mention of this man, because on his 
expedition of 1524, for Francis I, he discovered nothing. 
He '^ approached to the lande that in times past was 
discovered by the Britons," and after ''being furnished 
with water and wood," he sailed away to Dieppe. Later, 
when pilot of the Mary Guildford, he was killed in a 
fight with some Indians. 

On the 20th of April, 1534, Cartier's two small vessels, 
the combined crews numbering some one hundred and 
twenty men, sailed from St. Malo. Little was accom- 
plished on that first voyage. In the second, which 
sailed from the same port on the 19th of May, 1535, 
there were three ships, one hundred and ten sailors and 
a number of "gentlemen volunteers." The great river, 
St. Lawrence, was discovered and ascended to Hoche- 



l6 THE COMING CANADA 

laga; that is, modern Montreal. To the hill from which 
he had a grand view that assured him of the rich possi- 
bilities of the surrounding country, he gave the name of 
Mont Royal, around which has grown up the city of 
Montreal, one of the world's great ports. Limitations 
of space forbid carrying on the historical record, and 
already we have reached the time when Canada began. 
It is interesting to note that the Indian word Canada 
meant simply a village. That it has developed into an 
Empire, almost, is one of the astounding facts of history. 



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CHAPTER II 

COLONISATION — THE FOLKLORE OF CA NAD A 

ON May 23, 1541, Cartier sailed again from St. 
Malo upon his third voyage to Canada. He had 
been commissioned Captain- General, and the phrase- 
ology of his appointment indicates the French King's 
appreciation of the discoverer's merits, for tribute is 
paid to "the character, judgment, ability, loyalty, 
dignity, hardihood, great diligence, and experience of 
the said Jacques Cartier.'' While, as his title implies, 
the actual navigation of the fleet was entrusted to 
Cartier, yet the chief command of the expedition was 
given to Jean-Frangois de la Roque, superior of Roberval, 
who by a royal commission dated January 15, 1540, was 
appointed Viceroy and Lieutenant- General of Newfound- 
land, Labrador, and Canada. He was empowered to 
engage volunteers and emigrants, and if these did not 
come forward in sufficient numbers, he might take 
persons from the prisons and hulks. 

Roberval could not complete his arrangements in 
time to satisfy Cartier's impatience, who sailed without 
his superior officer. When the two met in the harbour 
of St. John's, Newfoundland, the Captain- General 
homeward bound after a very trying winter for which 
he held the other responsible, and the Lieutenant- 
General outward bound to take up his work, Cartier 



l8 THE COMING CANADA 

deliberately disobeyed the order of his superior to return 
with him to the St. Lawrence. 

Thus it seems that about six years after the French 
had formally taken possession of Canada, an attempt 
was made to colonise this New France. It was a failure, 
however, as were others until the time of Samuel de 
Champlain who made his first voyage to the St. Lawrence 
in 1603. In 1604, Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts, sailed 
from France with four vessels, well manned and supplied 
with whatever was required, both for carrying on the 
fur trade and for starting a colony. Two "were destined 
to commence the traffic for the company in peltry 
at Tadousac; thence proceeding to range the whole 
seaboard of New France, and seize all vessels found traf- 
ficking with the natives, in violation of the royal pro- 
hibition. The two other vessels were destined to bear 
the colonists embarked to such landing-places as should 
be agreed upon, and to aid in suitably locating them 
afterwards. Several gentlemen volunteers, some soldiers, 
and a number of skilled artisans, were embarked in these 
vessels." * 

De Monts was a Huguenot, and it was ordered that 
all French Protestants were to enjoy in America, as in 
France at that time, full freedom for their public 
worship. It was distinctly asserted, however, that they 
should take no part in native proselytising; the privi- 
lege and duty of converting the Indians being reserved 
exclusively for the Roman Catholic clergy. 

Under De Monts, who had been appointed Lieutenant- 
Governor by King Henry IV, were de Champlain, Pont- 
* History oj Canada, Andrew Bell, Vol. I, p. 74. 



THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 19 

Grave (a mercenary wretch), Poutrincourt, a nobleman 
who had decided to take his family and settle in America, 
and a lawyer who was subsequently to become a cele- 
brated historian, Lescarbot. This expedition did not 
go direct to the St. Lawrence, or Canada proper, but to 
that part of New France then called Acadia (Nova 
Scotia). Even this beginning did not develop into a 
colony without undergoing many discouraging vicissi- 
tudes, and later attention was almost concentrated in 
the valley of the St. Lawrence. It must be admitted 
that so far as Canada was concerned, the French did 
not display great ability in colonisation; for on the loth 
of February, 1763, when by the terms of the Treaty of 
Paris, all French possessions in North America, east of 
the Mississippi were transferred to Great Britain, the 
navigation of the river being thrown open to the subjects 
of both Powers (the city of New Orleans was excepted), 
the total population of New France did not much exceed 
80,000 souls, and even this estimate is declared by some 
authorities to be over liberal. When from that number 
are subtracted those representing the civilian officials 
and their families, the members of the religious orders, 
the officers and men of the army and navy, and the many 
others who cannot be classed as immigrant settlers, the 
number of actual colonists is reduced to insignificant 
proportions. 

These French settlers, habitants they call themselves, 
brought from their European homes the folklore tales, 
songs, legends, etc., of their native places. While these 
have, naturally, undergone some modification, they 
even now betray distinct signs of their origin, so that 



20 THE COMING CANADA 

as Dr. Benjamin Suite says, when a person listens 
attentively to the stories told at the hearth of the 
habitant's home, he can quickly determine from what 
part of Old France the ancestors of that particular farm 
or hamlet came, centuries ago. 

As a consequence, therefore, none of the French Cana- 
dian folklore gives any suggestion of originality or 
spontaneity. It is all exotic; but it has frequently 
been given a touch of local colouring which may readily 
deceive the uninitiated into assuming that the stories 
are indigenous. Hence it is not surprising that in the 
different districts of the province of Quebec, where the 
direct descendants of the original French colonists are 
more numerous than in any other part of the Dominion, 
there are variations of the story of Le Loup Garoux, that 
French tale which either owes its being to the influence 
of the old Norse legend of ^'The Were Wolf," or which 
had its origin in the same primary source. 

Conditions of life in the earliest days of New France 
were just such as would tend to make the unlettered 
peasants find in their surroundings everything needed 
to bring up the machinations of a fiendish Indian to take 
upon himself the shape of the Were Wolf and bring 
terror to themselves. There was the snow of winter; 
there was the mysterious death of someone who ventured 
into the forest; there were the bloody tracks of the wolf; 
and there were the prints of other, human, footsteps. 
Perhaps, too, even one of their own people might have 
committed some crime that, until expiated and absolved 
by the priest, would condemn the unfortunate person 
to carry out all the horrible details of the dreadful 



THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 21 

story. It is, perhaps, a little too much for one who has 
not had the opportunity for thorough study, to say that 
the preponderance of the weird and alarming in the 
French Canadian folklore is noticeable; yet such has 
seemed to me to be the case. 

I have never known people who are seemingly so con- 
tradictory as the Canadian habitants. They are friendly, 
polite, hospitable, and industrious of course. They give 
a welcome to any stranger who can converse with them 
in the language they still love, even though they are 
loyal British subjects; and rarely have I found any of 
them who have the slightest desire to return to French 
allegiance. Upon the possibility of transfer to citizen- 
ship in the United States, they look with scorn and horror. 
But he who wishes to get them to talk about themselves, 
their myths, and their interesting folklore, must prove 
himself to be a Frenchman or a very exceptional English- 
man, and then make it clear that his sympathy is the 
sterling article. 

If the folklore of the Canadiens is rarely anything 
more than the transplanted legends of northwestern 
France — Brittany most especially — there are some 
stories which these people still tell that have a distinctly 
local origin and colouring. When sailing up or down the 
St. Lawrence River below Quebec, the steamer passes, 
about thirty miles down stream from the old city, a 
group of islands, most of them small. As these are just 
about the middle of the stream, it is very necessary to 
navigate cautiously and the attention of the pilot is 
therefore concentrated upon the task in hand. But 
when he has a few minutes leisure, and if he is a French- 



22 THE COMING CANADA 

Canadian (as is very likely to be the case), he will 
doubtless tell the following story. 

The largest one of the group of islands is now called 
Crane's Island, and from a time in the early days of 
New France until not so very long ago, there was a 
handsome chateau near the western end of the island. 
At least it was, no doubt, a handsome structure when 
first built; but after the episode, upon which this tale 
is founded, it was neglected by everybody and the habi- 
tants looked upon it as haunted. Therefore they shunned 
it, and as there was no one to care for it, it must have 
gone to ruin very fast so that there is now no sign of it. 

When New France was beginning to lose some of its 
horrors, and had gained a somewhat better reputation 
than it had had in the days of Jacques Cartier and his 
immediate successors, the attention of even the French 
nobihty was sometimes turned towards America. One 
of these courtiers was a young nobleman who is said to 
have been very handsome, very popular at Court, and 
very gay; and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
that meant a good deal at the Court of France. 

This gay young courtier married a lady of good family. 
She was his equal in rank; she was renowned for her 
great beauty; but she was equally famous for her 
imperious disposition. She would not put up quietly 
with the pointed and open attentions that her husband 
showed the other ladies of the Court, and she took her 
lord sharply to task for his unseemly behaviour. He met 
her complaint with the rather startling proposition that 
they leave Old France and settle in New France, where, 
he said, there would be little danger of anything happen- 



THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 23 

ing in the way of gallantry to arouse the jealousy of 
either one. 

To his surprise, and quite likely to his disappointment, 
the lady accepted the suggestion and they soon sailed 
for Quebec. As they passed up the beautiful St. Law- 
rence, the romantic wildness of the valley fascinated 
the lady, and she chose the Isle des Grues, only a short 
distance below the much larger Isle d^Orleans, as the 
place for their future home. In due course of time Le 
Chateau le Grand, as they called it, was finished and the 
couple took possession. 

For several years the idylHc beauty of the spot, the 
novelty of the life, and the occupation of conquering 
wild Nature seemed to satisfy both Monsieur and 
Madame; but bye and bye her ladyship came to note 
that her husband was frequently absent from home at 
night, and although his reasons for doing so appeared 
to be plausible, Madame was not satisfied with them, 
therefore she determined to find out something for 
herself. 

One evening she followed him to the southern shore 
of the river and found him taking part in an Indian 
dance accompanied by decidedly Bacchanalian revels, 
and disporting himself in an altogether unseemly fashion 
with an Indian beauty. Madame had partly disguised 
herself with a long cloak, and as she stepped into the 
circle of dancers, the Indians thought her something 
uncanny and every one of them fled, leaving my lord 
and my lady facing each other and alone. With her 
characteristic imperiousness, but without speaking a 
wordj she waved her hand towards the river bank and 



24 THE COMING CANADA 

he followed her to the boats. They returned to the 
chateau where Madame exacted from her lord a promise 
that he would never again leave the island. He agreed, 
and there they lived for the few years that remained of 
the man's life. But the place was no longer the bower 
of bliss it had been and they were unhappy. When 
the husband died, the widow promptly returned to 
France and the chateau was abandoned. The Indians 
looked askance upon it, and their prejudice was com- 
municated to the French immigrants, so that even to 
this day Crane Island is not hked so well as the neigh- 
bouring country. Mothers sometimes quiet fractious 
children by threatening to leave them at the end of the 
island where there are ghosts. 

Then, still farther down the river, indeed now well 
into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there is another spot 
about which les habitants tell a weird story. South of 
Gaspe Peninsula, near the shore of the bay where Jacques 
Cartier planted a cross in 1534 and took possession of 
the whole country in the name of the King of France, 
there is an enormous rock called Le Roche perce, because 
the breakers have bored a hole through it, leaving an 
arch which easily suggests the name, "Pierced Rock." 
It is some two hundred and fifty feet or more high, and 
between five hundred and six hundred feet long. The 
top is fairly level and the sides are very steep, almost 
perpendicular. Of itself, the rock is sufficient to attract 
attention, and it lends itself readily to the strange 
stories that are told about it. 

One of these is that among the members of one of 
Cartier's later expeditions, there was a young man of 




Pierced Rock," from Steamer 




Preparing Fish, Pierced Rock, N. B. 



1 



THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 25 

Brittany who was engaged to a maiden at home. He 
did not care to take her with him when he first went to 
America; but upon arriving in Canada he concluded 
that it was quite safe for her to join him, and so he 
wrote for her to come to Quebec. 

She complied promptly; but the vessel on which she 
took passage was captured by a Spanish pirate and 
every soul on board, except herself, was put to death. 
The Spanish captain was so enamoured with her beauty 
that he vowed she should be his wife. The girl refused 
to listen to him, and then the brute declared he would 
sail up the St. Lawrence right past the town of Quebec, 
and there, where her lover could see, he would kill her. 
This fiendish threat so affected the maiden's mind that, 
as the ship came near the mouth of the river, she threw 
herself into the sea. The Spaniards lowered boats and 
tried to save her but she had disappeared and they put 
the ship on her course. 

Presently, however, a sailor reported to the skipper 
that he could see the form of a woman swimming ahead 
of the vessel and drawing it off the course towards a 
great cliff. All effort on the part of the helmsman to 
hold the ship away from the rocks was unavailing, and 
in spite of all that the officers and crew could do, the 
vessel crashed against the cliff and instantly ship and 
crew were all changed into stone and became a part of 
the great rock itself. 

The people of the neighbourhood will tell the visitor 
that until not very many years ago the shape of the ship 
could be distinctly seen on the face of the cKff. They 
still declare that one bit of rather pointed rock is the 



26 THE COMING CANADA 

bowsprit of the vessel of that Spanish abductor who, 
with his cowardly crew, was so justly punished, hundreds 
of years ago. The faithful maiden's ghost is declared 
to haunt the spot; yet — strange as it must sound — 
this wraith is not thought of or spoken about as some- 
thing awful by the habitants. They say she is very 
beautiful, but sad, of course; and when the last trace 
of the unlucky ship disappears, the ghost will be seen 
no more. She appears at sunset only; for that was the 
time of day when she threw herself into the sea. The 
Gaspe folks declare that no fisherman would dare to 
set a line for fish at that hour; because if he did mis- 
fortune would be sure to follow. 

Of the folklore of Canadian Indians and Eskimos, 
there is such an abundant supply in EngHsh translations 
at the command of my readers, that I shall not introduce 
any here. The field has not yet been exhausted, how- 
ever, because there are still some which have not been 
put into English; while there are others that are yet in 
French only. As acquaintance is made with Indians 
and Eskimos of the far north, who have not hitherto 
been visited by competent observers, we shall probably 
have interesting additions made to our stock of folklore. 
Those who desire to pursue this entertaining subject, 
are referred to the bibHography, wherein they will find 
a number of titles of books which will fully satisfy them. 
So far as purely Indian folklore alone is concerned, it 
must be remembered that there is much mingling of 
myths and legends of the Indians in the United States 
with those of the Dominion. 



CHAPTER III 
THE BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 

FRANCIS PARKMAN, in his volume Pioneers of 
France in the New World, devotes ten chapters 
to the European explorations into the southern part of 
the continent of North America, and especially to vari- 
ous sections in the southern portion of what is now the 
United States. These chapters cover the period from 
1512 to 1574 A.D. 

In the second part of the same volume, Parkman, 
taking the general title of Champlain and His Associates, 
discusses traditional French discoveries as far back as 
1488, and continues his narrative down to the death of 
Champlain at Quebec, on Christmas Day, 1635. 

It should be borne in mind that several recent Cana- 
dian historians differ somewhat from Parkman as to 
statement of facts; and some of these take issues openly 
with him as to the correctness of conclusions drawn. 
These Canadians are not in the least influenced by 
patriotic jealousy; they write or speak with the more 
exact knowledge gained from superior opportunity. As 
a concrete example of this, may be cited the credit that 
Parkman seems to give to Father Marquette, in his 
volume La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West. All 
competent authorities with whom I have conversed on 
this subject, Frenchmen and Englishmen, Anglicans 



28 THE COMING CANADA 

and Romanists, are vehement in denouncing the palpable 
effort of the priest to magnify his own importance in 
the expedition which Louis Joliet undertook, in 1672-3, 
for the discovery of the Mississippi River, and in which 
he was successful. Marquette does not explicitly claim 
anything; but he is thoroughly Jesuitical in his narra- 
tive, Voyages et decoiwerte de quelques pays et nations de 
VAmerique Septentrionale, and makes collaboration con- 
spicuous. Whereas the fact is that he forced himself 
upon Joliet, who was thoroughly trained for his enter- 
prise ; while Marquette was constantly an embarrassment 
and impediment to the real explorer and discoverer. To 
Joliet and to him alone belongs the credit of having dis- 
covered the Mississippi. The claim at one time brought 
forward in La Salle's behalf has been sufficiently and 
finally discredited. 

But with Parkman's book to give a general outline 
and many interesting particulars, it is hardly necessary 
to do more here than run rapidly over the list of those 
whose names are conspicuous among the pioneers of 
France in trying (most of them unsuccessfully) to gain 
possession of the great territory which had been added 
to French dominions, north of the St. Lawrence River 
and the Great Lakes. Besides, it is not so much my 
purpose to discuss further the scanty successes and the 
greater failures of the French, as it is to attempt to deal 
with the more successful efforts of the British to create 
the Dominion of Canada. 

Roberval, the first to give what was apparently any- 
thing but serious attention to the scheme of colonising 
New France, had a string of grandiose titles conferred 



BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 29 

upon him, and he was, moreover, aided in his enterprise 
by a substantial grant from the royal treasury of France. 
Yet, looking back upon the record of his acts, it is now 
a simple matter of fact to say that his efforts resulted 
in absolute failure. This is not surprising, for Roberval 
manifestly possessed none of the attributes of a successful 
pioneer and coloniser of the wild region which Canada 
was in the first half of the sixteenth century; even when 
we restrict that name to the shores of Nova Scotia, 
Acadia, and the narrow fringes along the St. Lawrence 
River hardly reaching beyond Montreal. 

Roberval was totally devoid of tact. He was a stern 
man without proper control of his temper, as is clearly 
indicated by his cruelty to his own niece, Marguerite. 
This young woman, to be sure, had passed beyond the 
boimds of decorum in her love for a gentleman in her 
uncle's company. This was a grave offence, and her 
punishment was to be marooned on the dreaded Island 
of Demons in the Straits of Belle Isle; a lonely spot 
that was supposed to be the haunt of evil spirits and wild 
beasts. It was intended to leave her there with only 
an old nurse who had lent her assistance in promoting 
the illicit intercourse of the young people. Her lover, 
however, followed her by swimming to the island. He 
died, as did the child who was born, and the old nurse, 
leaving Marguerite alone. After an experience which 
is horrible in the narrative, she was at last rescued and 
returned to France. 

It is certain that Roberval's effort to plant a colony 
at Cape Rouge, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence, 
was a ghastly failure; whether we accept Thevet's 



30 THE COMING CANADA 

account in his Cosmographie or the more lenient one of 
others. The iron hand of the Viceroy bore so heavily 
that *'even the Indians were moved to pity, and they 
wept at the sight of the colonists' woes." The King of 
France, Francis I, needing the services of Roberval, 
sent Cartier to fetch him home in 1543. *'It is said that, 
in after years, the Viceroy essayed to re-possess himself 
of his Transatlantic domain, and lost his life in the 
attempt. Thevet, on the other hand, with ample means 
of learning the truth, affirms that Roberval was slain 
at night, near the Church of the Innocents, in the heart 
of Paris." * 

For many years after this disastrous failure, nothing 
was done to develop New France. Then, in 1598 
according to the best authorities, Marquis de la Roche 
made a bargain with the King of France, Henry IV, 
by which he covenanted to colonise New France in 
return for a grant of the monopoly of trade. As usual, 
the concession from the king was accompanied by a 
profusion of worthless titles and empty privileges. We 
may gain a very good idea of what was likely to be the 
result of La Roche's effort, when we know that his 
colonists were a gang of thieves, murderers, and first- 
class villains, dragged from the prisons of France and 
left on Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia. Per- 
haps it was an accident that La Roche's ship and his 
few reputable followers were driven out to sea and clear 
across the Atlantic; but we may have our doubts. The 
outcasts were rescued in September, 1603, but only 
eleven siurvived. 

* Parkman, op. cit. 



BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 31 

The expedition of Pontgrave and Chauvin was not 
a serious attempt at colonising: it was simply a com- 
mercial venture. A company of sixteen men was landed 
at Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay River, and 
left there with the expectation that they would accu- 
mulate a large number of furskins. This was in the 
autumn, and being insufficiently supplied with stores 
and having no adequate means of contending with 
disease — the scurvy especially — a number of them 
died during the winter. In the spring all the rest went 
into the forest and were cared for, after a fashion, by 
friendly Indians. 

With the advent of Champlain (in Canada 1603 to 
1635), whose untiring efforts at exploring, surveying, 
and sounding were the beginning of Canadian cartog- 
raphy, we may say that the colonising and developing 
of Canada commenced. It was, however, a very feeble 
effort as compared with what was soon to be done by 
the English in their colonies to the southward. Indeed, 
there runs through the whole of the history of the French 
regime in Canada, a complaint of lack of well-directed 
colonising effort on the part of the home government; 
of rapacity by civilian officials in New France; and of 
seeming inabiHty on the part of the colonists themselves 
to adapt themselves to new and strange conditions of 
life. All these combined to retard colonisation and to 
make the limited success more conspicuous by contrast 
with the mammoth failures, than because of their own 
merit. French historians do not hesitate to declare 
that English effort, in colonising North America, was 
far more successful than that of their own countrymen; 



32 THE COMING CANADA 

and this not alone because of an advantage for the 
former in situation and cHmate. 

Remembering the zeal displayed by the Roman 
Catholic Church in the matter of religious propaganda 
amongst the heathen peoples in all parts of the world 
to whom access had been given its missionaries by the 
discoveries and explorations of the fifteenth, sixteenth, 
and seventeenth centuries, it is a little surprising that 
in none of the earliest companies of adventurers going 
from France to North America, were there any priests 
or evangelists. 

Apparently, not imtil April, 1615, when Champlain 
sailed from Harfieur on his third voyage does it seem 
that there was any effort made to spread a knowledge 
of the Christian religion among the Indians. What is 
more astonishing, however, is that the small companies 
of traders and settlers which had gone to America before 
that date, seem to have been neglected in this important 
matter. 

When Champlain left France at that time, there 
were in his company four members of the subdivision 
of the Franciscan order of monks. This branch were 
called Recollets. They were noted for the great strict- 
ness which ruled their lives, and especially for the im- 
portance which they attached to preaching the Gospel 
as well as ministering to the body and soul. The Recol- 
lets who accompanied Champlain at that time were 
declared by him to be the most intelligent persons in 
the colony. They took with them all the appurtenances, 
ornaments, and sacred vessels needed for use in the 
permanent places of worship which they intended to 



BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 33 

establish at once. They had, besides, other similar 
material for the portable chapels they would take with 
them into the wilderness. Champlain at once gave 
consent to the opening of regular Church services at 
the three principal trading posts of the colony, Quebec, 
Three Rivers, and Tadousac. 

From that year, 161 5, the history of the French colony 
in Canada, as well as that of the gradual extension of 
discovery and occupation westward, is closely con- 
nected with the efforts of the Roman Catholic mission- 
aries, to whose ministrations alone — it will be recollected 
— was entrusted the sacred privilege of trying to convert 
the Indians. The colonists themselves were permitted 
to conform to any ritual they chose; but no Protestant 
was oihcially deemed competent to proselyte. 

One of the Recollets, Rev. Father Joseph le Caron, 
was sent, soon after his arrival, into the distant regions 
held by the Huron tribes, a section of the continent that, 
until then, had never been visited by Europeans. When 
Le Caron started from Quebec on his mission, Cham- 
plain accompanied him for a time. But the mission 
of the Viceroy was not of the same peaceful nature as 
that of the priest. Champlain went for the purpose, 
he hoped, of chastising the Iroquois, and this was the 
third expedition against these troublesome natives. 

We may well read a lesson in this singularly contra- 
dictory alliance, for it is typical of the whole liistory of 
Canada until well into the nineteenth century. The 
missionary was to preach the doctrine of peace; the 
soldier was attempting to control or punish the Indians 
with sword and shot. There is temptation to dwell 



34 THE COMING CANADA 

upon the respective rights of white man and red; the 
latter dispossessed of his estates by the former without 
adequate compensation: but history has been made, 
and history repeats itself all the world over. 

Le Caron's first mission outpost was probably at the 
northern end of Lake Simcoe, which is connected by a 
broad channel, or river, with Georgian Bay of Lake 
Huron. It was at or near the modern village of Orillia. 
Here he settled down to study the Indian language and 
to do what he could, through example, to interest the 
natives in the services of his Church. It was a most 
intrepid thing to do; many would then have called it 
foolhardy, just as some do similar effort to-day. 

In going by the Grand Trunk Railway from Toronto 
north to join the Canadian Pacific's transcontinental 
line at North Bay (before the latter had built its own 
connection from Toronto to Romford Junction), I 
passed through the territory in which the priest Le 
Caron had laboured nearly three hundred years previ- 
ously. Shorn as all that part of the Province of Ontario 
now is of timber, and traversed by railways or abundantly 
supplied mth good roads, it was impossible to form 
even a faint idea of the difhculties which that missionary 
must have overcome; first to reach that remote out- 
station, and second to maintain himself and his mission. 

It was a comparatively easy matter to go from Quebec 
to Montreal by canoe or larger boat, provided no war- 
party of the Iroquois molested. Above Montreal, it 
was difficult to get past the Lachine Rapids, although 
it was done frequently; and until reaching about to 
the site of the present town of Prescott, navigation was 




Meadow Land, B. C. 




Fording Moose River, B. C. 



1 



BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 35 

not altogether easy. But after that, by the river, 
through The Thousand Islands and along the northern 
shore of Lake Ontario, the voyage was again easy. But 
from the lake shore, even the forty miles to the southern 
end of Lake Simcoe was, in 161 5, a task from which most 
people would recoil. Because, not only was there an 
almost impenetrable forest, but the swamps and numer- 
ous watercourses added enormously to the difficulty. 

A few years later, the Recollet mission was strength- 
ened numerically by the coming of more priests and 
some lay brothers, who pushed forward to stations 
even beyond Lake Simcoe into the remotest Huron 
settlements. One of these newer priests was the Rev. 
Father Gabriel Sagard, who later wrote a history of 
Canada. To the efforts of those two, Le Caron and 
Sagard, was due the measure of success which was 
achieved in securing peace between the Iroquois and 
the Hurons, and, incidentally, relieving the French 
settlements for a time from the depredations and mur- 
derous onslaughts of the former. 

The Recollets — for the branch was a mendicant 
order — were hampered by their poverty; and when 
the Due de Ventadour obtained King Louis XIII's 
authority to assume temporarily the viceroyalty of 
New France, a union was effected between the Recollets 
and the wealthy Jesuits. In the first company of the 
latter that went to Canada, was the famous Charles 
Lallemant (variants of spelling), who became the inti- 
mate friend and spiritual adviser of Champlain when 
he was again made viceroy. Lallemant attended his 
patron and charge at the time of his death. 



36 THE COMING CANADA 

The reception given the Jesuits when they landed at 
Quebec was extremely cool. On arriving in June, 1625, 
no one offered to shelter them, and they were on the 
point of accepting the offer of Emery de Caen, then 
Governor of Quebec, to send them home. But at last 
the RecoUets tendered them hospitality, and very soon 
they set about creating their own estabUshment, chapel, 
residences, fields, orchards. 

In 1629 Champlain was compelled to surrender Quebec 
to the three English brothers. Sir David, Louis, and 
Thomas Kirke, who promised that the churches, build- 
ings, and property of both Jesuits and Recollets, as well 
as certain other property of exceptional non-combatants, 
should be respected and protected. Three years later, 
when by treaty with England New France was restored 
to France, the great Cardinal Richelieu decided that it 
was not expedient to have in the colony more than a 
single order. Preference being given the Jesuits, the 
Recollets withdrew for the time being. 

It is a heavy indictment against our much vaunted 
civilisation, but we must admit that we have to skip 
over three centuries, before we find any great deal 
of fairness in the treatment which Europeans generally 
gave to the Indians of North America. There are, it 
is pleasing to admit, several exceptions to the rule. 
Those will at once be recalled by students, but they 
seem to make the general fact all the more discreditable 
and unsatisfactory. For the last hundred years, it i^ 
to Canada's credit that official, collective, and individual 
treatment of the Indians has been in nearly every way 
better than the similar record in the United States. 



BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 37 

We speak of ''The Noble Red Man" as if that descrip- 
tive title had been devised originally by Europeans. 
But the appellation ''Red Man" or "Red People" was 
used by the American savages long before the arrival 
of the white men, who are admitted by all historians to 
have been the first European visitors. Passing by every- 
thing that the Norsemen may have done in bestowing 
names which described people or places, it is clear that 
when the first French explorers came in touch with the 
Beothiks or Red Indians of Newfoundland, they already 
called themselves "Red." The title is a translation of 
the Micmac name for themselves, Maquajik, which 
means "Red Men" or "Red People."* 

If, and the fact is hardly to be disputed, Verrazzano, 
Cabot, and others perhaps, made the acquaintance of 
the North American Indians, they did very little that 
redounds to their credit when dealing with the naked 
savages. So far as Canada is concerned, we may say 
that Jacques Cartier's act on Friday, the 24th of Jime, 
1534, was the beginning of actual intercourse between 
civilised Europeans and wild Americans. 

The episode is treated in the most opposite ways by 
historians; some condemn, others approve. The fact 
seems to be that, after having explored the coast of 
Labrador as far north as a place he called Blanc Sahlon 
(probably the narrow strip of sandy beach below the 
mouth of the Hamilton River), discovered the insular 
character of Newfoundland, seen Cape Breton and New 
Brunswick, Cartier passed along the southern coast of 

* Conf. Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Sec. II, 1891. Rev. George 
Patterson, D.D., The Beothiks or Red Indians oj Newjoimdland. 



38 THE COMING CANADA 

Gaspe Peninsula. He was so much better pleased with 
the appearance of the country and the character of the 
soil including even the Magdalen Islands, that he said 
of Isle Byron, " one acre of it is worth the whole of New- 
foundland." Of Labrador, he had declared '^it might, 
as well as not, be taken for the country assigned by God 
to Cain." 

He concluded that it was his duty towards his king, 
as well as in the interest of religion and for the welfare 
of the savages, to take formal possession of the whole 
country, and he probably had in mind all there was of 
the New World to the north and to the west. To what 
extent he recognised the claims of others to the south- 
ward, is not very clear. 

He therefore had a great wooden cross, thirty feet 
high, raised at the entrance to the Bay of Chaleurs. 
Many Indians witnessed this ceremony and looked with 
astonished interest upon the three fleurs de lys, which 
were carved on the cross, and the inscription "Vive le 
Roy de France ^^ that was cut in the wood. The French- 
men all fell on their knees in a circle about the cross and 
united in prayers, raising their hands towards Heaven, 
"as if to show that by the cross came their redemption," 
that is, to the heathen savages. 

After the Frenchmen had returned from this ceremony 
to their vessel, some of the natives went alongside in 
their canoes, among them being the chief, his three sons, 
and his brother. The chief protested, as well as he 
could, against the act of the strangers, and indicated 
by his gestures that he and his people owned all that 
territory. He made it clear that the Indians considered 



BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 39 

the French had no right to plant that cross and seem to 
take possession of everything. 

Whether, as some authorities state, Cartier placated 
this chief and persuaded him to allow two of his sons to 
accompany him to France, in order that they might be 
shown at Court and trained to act as interpreters; or, 
as the less charitable contend, he forcibly abducted the 
two young men, is not clear. It is agreed by all, however, 
that two young Indians did go to France when Cartier 
returned from his first voyage to Canada, and that it 
was from them he heard of the great St. Lawrence River. 
His effort to confirm or disprove their statement led to 
the discovery on the next voyage, when the two Indians, 
now competent to act as interpreters and guides, were 
returned to their friends. 

Again Cartier was received amicably by the Indians, 
(a fact which tends to discredit the statement that he 
had used force and treachery to get possession of the 
two young men), and at first he himself seems to have 
tried to give the natives no good reason to fear the 
Europeans. Yet he mistrusted the Indians, and prob- 
ably that mistrust was reciprocated by the savages, for 
they kept a close watch upon the intruders. 

But at the conclusion of his second xdsit, Cartier 
abandoned his policy of uninterrupted kindness; for 
in May, when ready to sail for home, after another 
cross-planting and possession-taking, he induced a chief 
— who is called Donacona — and several others to go 
on board. Then he seized him, the two interpreters, 
and seven warriors, whom he proposed to carry off to 
France to present them to the King. This was a piece 



40 THE COMING CANADA 

of crass stupidity, and utterly obliterated the good effect 
of whatever tact, prudence, and sense of justice Cartier 
had previously displayed. 

As all the captives had died in France, when Cartier 
returned to Canada after an absence of five years, the 
reception given him by the Indians was distant, sullen, 
defiant, as was but natural on learning that their chief 
and their friends had not been returned to them. I pay 
no attention to the dissimulation about the fate of those 
Indians which Cartier is said to have resorted to. 

If that was the beginning of intercourse between 
Frenchmen, contemplating settlement in New France, 
and the natives, we have no reason to be surprised that 
the success which marked the effort was as small as it 
is stated to have been. Whichever record we read, we 
must admit that intercourse was, as a rule, not happy. 
The constant effort of the missionaries may have been 
along better lines; and there are exceptionally bright 
cases among the officials; but the motives which gov- 
erned the average Frenchman, and the inherent character 
of the Indian, made assimilation and concord as difficult 
as is the mingling of oil and water. 

When British rule in Canada was firmly established, 
and after the Indians were chastised into showing fear 
and respect for the power of their conquerors, condi- 
tions mended. The Dominion Government has for a 
very long time exercised the most admirable care in 
protecting the Indians, in trying to elevate them socially, 
and to preserve them physically. It is, however, an 
almost hopeless task. For one reason, the average 
Indian maiden, if she possesses any charm of mind or 



BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 4I 

manner, is sought in marriage by white men, and when 
allowed to make her own choice gives preference to the 
white man over her own people. The Noble Red Man 
does not always thrive in modern civilisation, and slowly 
but surely the pure strain of blood is flowing away. 

The belief — or perhaps it would be more charitable 
and equally exact to say, the hope — that the much 
desired passage to the East Indies, might yet be found 
through or around America to the northward, obsessed 
the French Canadians for a very long time. Even 
Champlain, practical as he was in most matters, listened 
only too willingly to the declaration of the impostor, 
Nicolas du Vignau. This fellow declared he had, in 
part, discovered such a route in 161 2, by going from 
Lake Nipissing to Hudson's Bay. 

Champlain, on the strength of this statement, went to 
the lake determined to prosecute the search. But the 
friendly Indian chief, Tessouat, proved conclusively that 
Vignau was a Har, and he demanded that Champlain 
punish the deceiver with death. The governor con- 
tented himself with administering a sharp rebuke, and 
then he returned disappointed to Quebec. 

Yet it could not be that the French would remain 
passive while there stretched before them the great 
western and northern parts of the continent. It would 
be tedious to mention all the efforts of the colonial 
government in erecting frontier forts, those of the mis- 
sionaries in estabhshing remote stations, and of the 
coureurs des hois, as well as other traders, in making 
more or less permanent trading posts. All of these 
were gradually pushing forward the line of civilisation. 



42 THE COMING CANADA 

The most important move in conquering the wilder- 
ness, was the discovery of the Mississippi River. Joliet, 
with his Httle company, including Father Marquette, 
descended the great stream to the mouth of the Arkansas. 
It may be interesting to note here that had Joliet's right, 
as discoverer, to christen the river been recognised, it 
would now be called the Colbert River, for, when mak- 
ing his report to Governor Frontenac, he wrote, ^'this 
great river, which bears the name of Colbert, from having 
been discovered lately in consequence of the orders 
given by you, passes from beyond lakes Huron and 
Michigan, and flows through Florida and Mexico into 
the sea, intersecting the most beautiful region there is 
to be seen in the world." The name was, of course, a 
compliment to Jean Baptiste Colbert, the French states- 
man and financier. 

If we deny to Robert la Salle the honour of discovering 
the Mississippi, by that means being the first to know 
the stream, we cheerfully accord him the distinction of 
being the first to navigate the river from far in the north 
to the sea, in 1682. It was he who claimed the entire 
basin for his King, and in honour of that sovereign, he 
named it Louisiana. La Salle also established many 
outposts and greatly extended French importance 
among the western Indians. 

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, unmis- 
takable signs of friction between the French and English 
became evident, and this prevented official effort to 
extend western exploration. It was about this same 
period, too, that the family name, Le Moyne, appears 
conspicuously in Canadian records. While the two 



BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 43 

brothers, Charles and Jacques, born in France, were 
the Canadian progenitors of this remarkable family 
and themselves entitled to much commendation, it is 
to the members of the second generation in Charles' 
family that most credit is due. There were fourteen 
children in this brood, all of whom achieved fame or 
died gloriously in the cause of their country. To each 
of the eleven sons was given, in addition to the family 
name, a surname taken from a village or noted place 
near Dieppe, the ancestral home. It is the third, Pierre 
Le Moyne, as Sieur dTberville, who has been given, by 
an admiring historian, the added title of '^The First 
Great Canadian." The Le Moynes, however, had less 
to do with extending the frontiers of New France than 
with defending the borders from what they considered 
to be unlawful incursions by other European nations; 
as will be seen in the next chapter. 

The progress made by the French in proper western 
extension, was exceedingly slow. When the historian 
and Jesuit missionary, Pierre Francois Xavier de Charle- 
voix, visited Canada in 1720, and after giving a consider- 
able time to carefully observation, he stated that the 
colony was virtually restricted to narrow fringes along 
both shores of the St. Lawrence River and the few 
settlements in the maritime provinces. Above Montreal, 
he declared, the country was entirely unsettled by 
Europeans, excepting some small, inadequately fortified 
posts and blockhouses; such as Frontenac, at Catara- 
coni, just below the present Kingston, Niagara, at the 
mouth of the river, Detroit, and Michillimakinac, on 
the St. Mary's River where it empties into Lake Huron 



44 THECOMINGCANADA 

from Lake Superior. Of the character of the people 
in the towns and settlements along the St. Lawrence, 
this entertaining observer writes intelligently and in 
quite a complimentary manner. The comparison which 
he draws between EngHsh and French colonists is not 
only correct, but instructive. He probably did not 
reahse, when he penned his analysis, that the very 
traits which he lauds in the French and condemns in 
the English, thrift, acquisitiveness, energy, were to be 
the potent factors in the downfall of French Canada. 

About the middle of the eighteenth century, there 
were three recognised lanes of communication between 
Canada and Louisiana. One went from Lake Erie by 
the Riviere aux Boeufs and the Allegheny River to the 
Ohio, and down that stream to the Mississippi. Another 
left the southern end of Lake Michigan, at a point about 
where Chicago now stands, and after a portage to the 
navigable waters of the Illinois River, followed that 
stream to the Mississippi. The tliird passed from Green 
Bay, Lake Michigan, into Fox River, and by portage 
from Lake Oshkosh and its tributaries, reached the 
Wisconsin River and so into the Mississippi very far up 
stream. 

Fort de Chartres, in the vicinity of the present town of 
Chester, Illinois, some distance north of the Ohio's 
mouth, was the most advanced outpost of the Louisiana 
settlements. The first of the intercommunicating lanes 
which have been mentioned, and by far the most im- 
portant, was protected by a number of fortified posts, 
stretching southward and westward from Lakes Ontario 
and Erie; and it was along this road that troubles were 





-''**sis^ •■'i^jq^J 




Canadian Northern Railway Elevator, Port Arthur, Ont. 

Capacity, 7,500,000 bushels 




Beach at Little Metis, Quebec Province 



BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 45 

doomed to occur very soon between the French and the 
English. It will be evident, however, that the most 
westward forts of New France had not begun to reach 
half way across the continent. 

In 1 73 1, the Canadian authorities determined to put 
into effect a plan that had been discussed as far back as 
1 7 18. This was an attempt to send an expedition 
overland to the Pacific. Governor de Beauharnais, 
after consultation with Pierre- Gauthier de Varennes, 
Sieur de la Verendrye, appointed him to take charge of 
the venture. This was not only because of the gentle- 
man's personal traits, but for the added reason that 
experience in trafficking with the western Indians had 
brought him considerable knowledge of that remote 
country. In an incidental expedition, before the main 
object had been fairly undertaken, the eldest son of 
M. de la Verendrye, the Jesuit priest Father Alneau or 
Auneau, and twenty voyageurs were murdered by Sioux 
Indians on an island in the Lake of the Woods. But 
the remainder prosecuted the exploration, and on Janu- 
ary I, 1743, they were the first Europeans to see the 
Rocky Mountains: thence they returned to Quebec. 
The expedition had lasted fromi April 29, 1742, to July 
2, 1743. Although the senior Verendrye endeavoured 
to push his claim to be allowed to continue the explora- 
tion, it was disallowed. So far as the French were con- 
cerned, it does not appear that they went to the top of 
the mountains, or beyond them. 

This is a very brief, but reasonably complete sketch 
of French effort at western exploration. The more 
successful attempts of the British will appear from time 



i 



46 THE COMING CANADA 

to time in subsequent sections. But I cannot close 
this chapter without reference to Mr. Lawrence J. 
Burpee's paper, The Lake of the Woods^ Tragedy,^ and 
his monograph on La Verendrye and the discovery of 
the Rocky Mountains, one volume in the forthcoming 
History of Canada, now being written under the direc- 
tion of Dr. Arthur G. Doughty, C.M.G., Dominion 
Archivist, as editor in chief. To the latter monumental 
work, all students of American history will be ever- 
lastingly indebted. 

* Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., Sec. II, 1903. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE GREAT HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 

BEFORE discussing the English company, it is 
interesting to consider the efforts of the French 
and others to reach the North Sea, as they called Hud- 
son Bay. Sebastian Cabot discovered this body of 
water in 151 2, but after that it was so completely for- 
gotten or overlooked, that it is said to have been re-dis- 
covered by Henry Hudson in 1610, when he was trying 
to find a northwest passage through to the Pacific Ocean. 
It was not on Hudson's first voyage to this part of the 
world that he pushed as far westward as the bay which 
deservedly bears his name. In 1607, he had made, in 
the employ of the Muscovy Company, an unsuccessful 
effort to get round Greenland. 

At that time his vessel was the Hopewell, sixty tons 
burden, and carrying a crew of ten men and a boy. 
This little craft had been to the same region twenty- 
nine years before, under Sir Martin Frobisher's com- 
mand. The temptation to dwell upon Frobisher's 
voyage must be resisted; for while it is interesting, it 
is somewhat irrelevant. In 16 10, Hudson made another 
attempt. This time his vessel was the Discoverie, of 
seventy tons and with a somewhat larger crew than the 
HopewelVs. He reached the bay; but the next sunamer 
the majority of his crew mutinied, put him, his son, 
and seven men into a small boat and set them adrift. 



48 THE COMING CANADA 

What became of these unfortunates no one knows, but 
imagination can readily supply the conclusion of the 
awful story. The leaders of the mutiny and most of 
the remainder of the men died, but the Discoverie safely 
reached England, and she was again used by Sir Thomas 
Butler in a similar enterprise a few years later. Again, 
in 1 6 13 and 16 14 Hudson Bay was visited by English- 
men, and the place surveyed. 

In 1 65 1, the Jesuits, after having gone up the Saguenay 
River to Lake St. John four years before, made their 
way overland from the lake to a point about half the 
distance to James Bay, the deep, southern bight of 
Hudson Bay. Their object was to reach the natives 
who had asked that missionaries be sent to them. In 
1661, the unsuccessful expedition under M. la Valliere, 
Father Dablon, and others, was sent to try to reach 
Hudson Bay by the same route; but the dread of the 
Iroquois discouraged the Indian guides, who pretended 
ignorance of the country, and the party returned. In 
1656, Jean Bourdon, in a small craft of only thirty tons 
burden, had entered Hudson Bay and reached the 
southern extremity, where he trafficked with the natives. 
His success seems to be reflected in the narrative of the 
next venture to be mentioned. 

There is some doubt as to whether or not Pierre- 
Esprit Radisson, a voyageur, reached James Bay; but 
some Canadian students who have given careful atten- 
tion to the subject, are of the opinion that he did. Dr. 
Benjamin Suite* says: *' Whatever may be said of the 

* Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., Vol. X, Sec. II. Radisson in the Northwest^ 
1661-63. 



Hudson's bay company 49 

whereabouts of Chouart (Radisson's brother-in-law) 
and Radisson during the summer of 1662, whether they 
went to James Bay or to Lake Winnipeg, is open to 
discussion, although I beHeve they visited James Bay." 
This assumption is based mainly upon the fact that 
Radisson declared the people of Chagouamigon (on the 
northern shore of Lake Superior?), where he spent the 
winter of 1662-63, ''after his return from James Bay,'* 
had been told by him of his promise to "the Indians 
of James Bay of his intention to go back to them by the 
Atlantic Ocean, as they occupy the territory of the 
beaver, par excellence. ^^ 

It is but right, however, to give what Dr. Suite him- 
self quotes and says, which seems to contradict his own 
opinion. Father Jerome Lallemant, in the Journal des 
Jesuites says: ''I left Quebec on May 3rd, 1662, for 
Three Rivers. I came across des Groseilliers, who was 
going to the North Sea. He passed during the night 
before, Quebec, with ten men, and, having arrived at 
Cap Tourmente, he wrote to the Governor." Dr. 
Suite adds: "If the date of this note is correct, the 
voyage of Radisson may be open to doubt." Father 
Louis Hennepin, in his edition of 1698 (Nouveau Voyage) 
writes: "The Great Bay of the North was discovered 
by Monsieur Desgroseliers Rochechouart (sic.) with 
whom I often travelled in canoe when I was in Canada." 
But Father Hennepin is not absolutely infallible as an 
historian. The claim which he puts forward in his 
Nouvelle Decouverte d'un ires grand Pays, of having 
descended the Mississippi, in 1680, is known to be 
false. 



50 THE COMING CANADA 

M. Talon arrived in Canada in 1665 bearing the 
appointment of Royal Intendant. By provisions of the 
French Constitution of 1663, ^^^ ofhcial was placed in 
charge of the police, finances, and general administra- 
tion of justice throughout the whole colony. Talon 
was called "The Colbert of Canada," and this sobriquet 
indicates something of his ability. He is described as 
a man of high character and an official of lofty probity. 
He is credited with having promoted expeditions for 
extending the boundaries of New France towards the 
northward and westward. These efforts, it is declared, 
subsequently resulted in the discovery of the North Sea; 
as if the success were something new. 

On June 28, 1672, one expedition which Talon pro- 
moted, went from Quebec by way of Tadousac, the 
Saguenay River, and Lake St. John to the southern 
shore of James Bay. The leaders of this company were 
St. Simon and La Couture, with whom there was Father 
Charles Albanal. They found the country to be a 
desolate region, yet they took possession in the name of 
the King of France; and in proof of this, they buried a 
brass plate, on which were engraved the royal arms. 
This act, confirming the previous assertion of proprietary 
rights by France to all the continent, certainly north- 
ward from the St. Lawrence Basin and the Great Lakes 
— if nothing more — was the ground upon which the 
French took their stand before long in almost constant 
efforts to dislodge those whom they called "English 
intruders;" until the peace of Utrecht, April 11, 17 13, 
confirmed the title of Great Britain to the Hudson's 
Bay Territory. 



HUDSON S BAY COMPANY 51 

In 1670, Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, and 
sixteen other noblemen and gentlemen received from 
Charles II of England a charter creating ''The Gover- 
nor and Company of Adventurers of England trading 
to Hudson's Bay." The charter seems to have been 
all that monopoly could ask: "the sole trade and com- 
merce of all those seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes, 
creeks, and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall 
be, that lie within the entrance of the straits commonly 
called Hudson's Straits, together with all the lands and 
territories upon the countries, coasts, and confines of 
the seas, bays, etc., aforesaid, that are not already 
actually possessed by or granted to any of our subjects, 
or possessed by the subjects of any other Christian 
prince or state." Besides the fullest governing and 
administrative powers over these undefined regions, 
"which the Company finally agreed to accept as meaning 
all lands watered or drained by all streams flowing into 
Hudson's Bay," and a good deal more, the Company 
was given the right to "the whole and entire trade and 
traffick to and from all havens, bays, creeks, rivers, 
lakes, and seas into which they shall find entrance or 
passage by water or land out of the territories, limits, 
or places aforesaid." 

A map drawn some time ago of "British America to 
illustrate the Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company," * 
shows a line leaving the head of Committee Bay and 
going southwesterly to Wallaston Lake, around the 
headwaters of all streams flowing east into Hudson 

* See Canada under British Rule, 1760-igoo, by Sir John G. Bourinot, 
p. 222. 



52 THE COMING CANADA 

Bay. Thence, inclining more to the west, it reaches 
the summit of the Rocky Mountains at the source of 
the North Branch of the Saskatchewan River. Then 
south along the crest of the main ridge, extending about 
one hundred miles into the United States. It then 
turns to the northeast and re-enters Canada, but soon 
bends south and re-crosses the boundary in order to 
take in the headwaters of the Red River of the North. 
It then follows the divide of the Great Lakes and St. 
Lawrence to the headwaters of the Saguenay River, 
and thence bears up sharply to the north, reaching the 
ocean again at Cape Chudleigh, Labrador. Within this 
area there are millions of square miles. 

In this immense region, which was called Ruperfs 
Land, in honour of the prince concessionaire, the first 
attempts at settlement were on the shores of James 
Bay and the mouth of the Churchill and Hayes (or 
Nelson) Rivers. Had it not been for the attacks of 
the French and the heavy losses they inflicted, the 
profits of the Company would have been so enormous 
from the traffic along shore, that it is probable no 
attempt would have been made to exploit the interior. 
So negligent was the Company in this respect that, in 
1749, some envious people attempted to secure the 
passage of an act of parliament, forfeiting the charter 
on the ground of ''non user." This attack was thwarted, 
by means that are not unfamiliar to the champions of 
"big business" to-day; but the investigation that was 
forced developed the fact that the Company had less 
than a dozen trading places, called — and not altogether 
without reason — "forts." These were all scattered 






Hudson's bay company 53 

along the coast and were maintained by a few regular 
employees, who resided in them throughout the winter, 
and were aided in the "open" season by the crews of the 
visiting ships. These vessels were always heavily armed. 

It was inevitable that individual fur-traders and small 
companies should attempt to break in upon the monop- 
oly of the great Hudson's Bay Company, and these 
in turn effected a combination to work territory which 
they justly claimed was outside the concession of their 
predecessor. The competition which this developed 
was, for a time, most disastrous, and after varying 
vicissitudes, the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1838, again 
secured a monopoly; this time over the whole of Canada. 

The Company's licenses to trade, which had never 
been affected, were transferred, in a manner, to the 
British Government in 1869 for the sum of £300,000, 
and a shareholder's interest of one-twentieth of the 
entire grant. Even to-day, the traveller's eyes fre- 
quently fall upon the sign "Hudson's Bay Company" 
over a furrier's shop in some city, or a "general store" 
in a small place far out west. If he has taken more 
than superficial interest in the history of the Dominion, 
these signs will recall some stirring scenes in the past, 
and will bring to mind the names of many true heroes. 

But let us first turn to some of the encounters between 
the Frenchmen who made Hfe a burden for the Hudson's 
Bay Company people, at the stations along the coasts 
of Hudson Bay. In this connection, we must almost 
necessarily think of Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville. 
Governor Frontenac was in most ways an admirable 
official — invaluable, in fact, as we know because of 



54 THE COMING CANADA 

re-appointment; but he was rather arbitrary and dis- 
posed to arrogate to himself authority which was properly 
deputed to others, who claimed the right to administer 
certain affairs of the colony. He got into disputes with 
the clergy and laity as to the relative powers of the 
three important officials, Governor, Bishop, and Inten- 
dant. He was disposed to usurp wholly the functions 
of the intendant, and he refused to permit the clergy 
to have anything to do with civil affairs, even when such 
came properly within their province: the Uquor traffic, 
for example. 

Matters came to such a pass that the Bishop, Laval, 
a name that is now held in high esteem by all Canadians, 
went to France to try to sustain his position. Fron- 
tenac, however, had influential friends at Court, and the 
appeals of both parties were almost negative in their 
direct results. The upshot of the matter was that the 
Court, being unable to effect harmony, recalled both 
Frontenac and Duchesneau, the Intendant; the Bishop 
it could not touch. 

M. de la Barre was appointed governor and M. de 
Meulles intendant. The former was before long suc- 
ceeded by M. de Denonville. In 1683, the great 
Colbert was succeeded in office as Minister of Marine 
by his eldest son, Jean Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de 
Seigneley, who held office until his death in 1690. Inas- 
much as the colonies were all under the control of this 
department of the French administration, de Seigneley 
interested himself, both from necessity and because of 
personal ambition, in the affairs of Canada. 

He gave orders to Governor Denonville to take active 



Hudson's bay company 55 

measures to decide the long standing dispute as to the 
rights of France or England in the territory around 
Hudson Bay, which was by him considered to include 
all of Labrador as well as the precise Hudson Bay basin. 
The French government looked upon this region as of 
great importance strategically; but of greater economic 
value on account of the fur- trade. Whether Radisson, 
who has been mentioned, actually made his way to 
Hudson Bay or not, it is certain that it was because of 
his representations and persuasions that ''The Com- 
pany of Enghsh Adventurers " came into corporate being, 
and established trading posts at places where the very 
best of fur-trade was exploited. These ''forts kept the 
current of skins flowing steadily toward England." 

Radisson was supposed to be a Frenchman; and of 
this there is little doubt, even if his original Journal is 
written in quaint old English. He had a position under 
the French colonial government, but he betrayed his 
post and an entire shipload of valuable furs to the 
English. It was this particular act which roused the 
indignation of the Canadians, and made them call upon 
the Home Government to bestir itself in asserting and 
upholding French rights in the Hudson Bay territory. 
Erelong a number of Quebec merchants formed an 
association which they called, "La Compagnie du 
Nord." The promoters intended, with government aid, 
to attack in every way the monopoly of the great Hud- 
son's Bay Company. 

Just at that moment, it happened that France, under 
King Louis XIV, and England, under James II, were 
officially at peace. But the former argued, not un- 



56 THE COMING CANADA 

naturally, that inasmuch as he was giving the latter 
large sums of money each year, in satisfaction of the 
terms of what was then a secret agreement between the 
two monarchs, mainly in the interests of the Roman 
Catholic Church, his beneficiary would hardly resent 
militantly the attempt of the patron to occupy the dis- 
puted Rupert's Land. 

Besides, there was a semblance of right on the French 
monarch's part. Hudson, it is true, was the re-discoverer 
in 1610; but Cabot was the original discoverer, and 
nobody from England, or anywhere in Europe for that 
matter, had taken the slightest notice of this God- 
forsaken land for nearly eighty years after Hudson had 
told about it. At length Radisson and Groseilliers, 
Frenchmen, made an establishment at the mouth of 
the Hayes River, 1 661-1663. That was from five to 
eight years before the English had founded a trading 
station on Rupert River, 1 668-1 669; and from seven to 
nine years before the Hudson's Bay Company was 
chartered. 

There were, however, other reasons more cogent than 
the peltry trade, enormously profitable though it was, 
which doubtless influenced the French King in his 
desire to get the English away from Hudson Bay. His 
servants in New France were looking with alarm upon 
the fact that English settlements were likely to press 
upon Canada from both south and north, if the trading- 
posts on Hudson Bay were permitted to remain and to 
follow the natural law of extension. It was not so very 
far from the head of James Bay to the St. Lawrence 
watershed, and each year it would be easier to pass from 



Hudson's bay company 57 

the Hudson Bay posts into Canada. Of course at that 
time, the much easier routes by the Severn or the Nelson 
River and Lake Winnipeg, were not open. 

In obedience to Seigneley's orders, Governor Denon- 
ville mobiHsed at Montreal a company of regular soldiers 
and voyageurs, thirty of the former and seventy of the 
latter, under the command of Captain de Troyes, an 
officer in the celebrated Carignan Regiment. There 
were, besides, a large body of Indians, guides, canoe men, 
and hangers-on generally. Among the Canadians were 
three young members of the Le Moyne family, de St. 
Helene, that is Jacques, the second son, d'Iberville, 
Pierre, the third, and de Maricourt, the fourth. They 
had volunteered to act as guides, interpreters, and scouts; 
but they were very quickly made leaders; and before 
long Pierre was next in command to De Troyes. 

There were then — as, indeed, we may say there are 
now — three canoe routes, in the right season not 
involving any exceedingly difficult portages, between 
the St. Lawrence River and Hudson Bay (briefly — the 
Saguenay River; the St. Maurice River; and the Ottawa 
River — Lake Abillibi). This "troup of daredevil 
bushrangers sweeping down the forested waterways of 
the North," chose the third; hoping to keep the English 
from getting warning in advance, and also to evade the 
watchful eyes of any wandering band of Iroquois. 

The time, the circumstances, and the customary 
hap-hazardness of such enterprises being considered, 
this expedition was remarkably well organised. Every 
white man was a fighter, first of all; but each one had, 
besides, some accomplishment or trade that was to be 



58 THE COMING CANADA 

useful in carrying out the minor object of the enterprise, 
that is the establishing and maintaining permanent 
stations after the main purpose of dislodging the English 
had been accomplished. The full narrative of this 
expedition is absorbingly interesting to adults; while it 
makes the heart and muscles of a strong, venturesome 
boy tingle to-day; and it is not surprising that it has 
been given in detail.* 

The full company heard mass early in the morning of 
March 20, 1686, and then 'departed bravely through 
the eager throng of relatives and friends who collected 
at the shore to look long and anxiously after them as 
they ascended the frozen channel of the river." On 
June i8th, they were within sight of Hudson Bay. "In 
three months the hardy voyageurs had covered six hun- 
dred miles of new trail, through a most rugged part of 
Canada by snowshoes." It was not in midwinter, as 
some writers state; for at that season it would really 
have been an easier task — so far as actual travel is 
concerned — than the one they performed in the late 
winter and spring, when the snow was soft and the ice 
breaking. 

At that time the English had but few posts along the 
Hudson Bay littoral: Moose Factory, called Fort Mon- 
sipi by the Indians and Fort St. Louis by the French, 
at the mouth of Moose River, southwestern end of James 
Bay; Fort Rupert at the southeastern corner of the 
same bay; Fort Kitchichouane or Fort Albany, at the 
mouth of the Albany River, called Fort St. Anne by 

* Charles B. Reed. The First Great Canadian: the Story of Pierre 
Le Moyne, Sieur d' Iberville. 



Hudson's bay company 59 

the French; New Savaiine or Severn, at the mouth of 
the Severn River, called by the French Fort St. Therese; 
and Fort Nelson, afterwards Fort York, which the 
French called Fort Bourbon. This last named was the 
strongest and best of all, and its location, at the mouths 
of the Hayes and Nelson Rivers, the most important 
strategically and economically at that time, as it has 
always been ever since. Radisson and Groseilliers had 
made a station near this same place and it was this fact 
which gave the French the only basis for their claim to 
the territory. 

The French, under the direction of D 'Iberville and De 
St. Helene, attacked Moose Factory and were promptly 
successful, although the commandant. Governor Bridgon, 
had left the previous evening, June 17, 1686, with fif- 
teen men for Fort Rupert. The Frenchmen followed 
them, and it is said that DTberville, with only a small 
squad, opened a trail across the neck of land — between 
Hannah and Rupert Bays — that is used to this day. 
The attacking party covered the one hundred and twenty 
miles in five days. Again they were at once successful, 
and after resting four days, they returned to Moose 
Factory, and thence went on to Fort Albany. 

When the French arrived before this post, the garrison 
had been informed of the impending attack by some 
friendly Indians, and should have been prepared to 
resist. Partly because of the fierce assault, but mainly 
through treachery within, the governor, Sargeant, was 
compelled to capitulate, and for his weakness was 
severely censured later by the directors of the Hudson's 
Bay Company. But apparently he had no alternative. 



6o THE COMING CANADA 

This victory gave the French large supplies of pro- 
visions, trading stores, ammunition, and a ship loaded 
with fifty thousand valuable furskins. It also made 
them masters of Hudson Bay. The ship and most of 
the EngKshmen were sent to France in charge of a prize 
crew. 

Although not yet officially constituted by royal charter, 
"The Governor and Company of Adventurers trading 
into Hudson's Bay" seems to have been at that time 
an organised body; for on receipt in London of the news 
from the bay, the directors sent a petition to King James 
praying for redress because "the French of Canada, 
this yeare, have in a piraticale manner taken and totally 
despoyled youre Peticioners of three of theyre Fortes 
and Factories on Hudson's Bay, three of their shypes 
or vessels. Fifty Thousand Beaver skins, and a grete 
quantity of provisions, stores, and marchandises laid 
in for manye yeares trade, and have in a small vessel 
turned out to sea above Fifty of Youre Majestie's sub- 
jects who were then in youre Peticioners service, to 
shifte for themselves or perish miserably, besides those 
whome they have kylled or detayned Prisoners." 

It was some years, however, before anything was even 
contemplated. When ships were sent to attempt the 
recapture of Fort Nelson, news of the expedition was 
communicated to the French authorities in Canada and 
to D 'Iberville, who not only harassed the EngHsh, but 
by a clever coup gained possession of the vessel that had 
the cargo of furs and carried her off to Quebec; thus 
further "despoyling" the Company. 

When Frontenac was again sent as Governor to 













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Prince Rupert Harbour 




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Hudson's bay company 6i 

Canada, in 1689, William of Orange and Queen Mary 
were on the English throne, and all pretence of friend- 
ship between the EngUsh and French Courts had ceased. 
It was the beginning of the long struggle between New 
France and New^ England, and the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany was made to bear its full share of the burden. The 
Peace of Utrecht brought a Kttle respite, so far as open 
hostilities went; but it was not until the transfer of 
Canada to Great Britain, 1763, that the Company was 
reheved from all anxiety due to French interference and 
depredations. 

But there came other causes for anxiety. The Hud- 
son's Bay Company maintained its American head- 
quarters at York Factory (Fort Nelson) ; its employees 
going along all the shores and as far inland as necessary 
to gather up the pelts. In 1783, The North West Com- 
pany was organised by some Montreal merchants, most 
of whom were Scotchmen. They contemplated working 
in the North West Territories, going in from the south 
and diverting a part of the furskins from going north 
into the Hudson's Bay Company's hands. Its adminis- 
trative headquarters were at Fort William on the 
Kaministiquia River. This name has disappeared from 
our modern maps, but the location of Fort William, on 
Thunder Bay, Lake Superior, is readily established, and 
its advantages as a shipping point are conspicous. 
The North West Company's men became explorers of 
the then unknown lands away off to the Pacific and the 
Arctic Oceans. 

Alexander Mackenzie, afterwards knighted, was the 
first white man to follow the great river which bears his 



62 THE COMING CANADA 

name, from its source to its mouth. He was, too, the 
first European to cross the Rocky Mountains and reach 
the Pacific shores in that latitude. Another employee 
of the Company, Simon Fraser, in 1808 found the river 
which bears his name, and which, for a long time, was 
confused with the Columbia, or at least supposed to 
be an ajffluent of that stream. Later, David Thompson, 
whose name is given to another important river in 
British Columbia, crossed the Rockies farther south of 
Mackenzie's trail, and descended the Columbia to its 
mouth. He also was probably the first European to 
see Puget Sound. 

These are but a few of the pioneers; yet their exploits 
give an inkling of what competition the Hudson's Bay 
Company was made to face. The culmination of the 
rivalry was reached about 18 18, and is attributable to 
the effort of Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of Selkirk, to 
estabhsh a colony in the Red River of the North basin. 
His settlers were under the protection of the Hudson's 
Bay Company; while opposed to them were squatters 
and others, ''Northwesters," who were supported by 
the North West Company. Governor Semple, of the 
Selkirk colony, and twenty-six persons connected there- 
with, were murdered by half-breeds, and justice was 
thwarted by false swearing. 

Then, in 182 1, the North West Company made over 
all its property to its rival, and thus were the fortunes 
of the Hudson's Bay Company retrieved, and prosperity 
came again to its shareholders, but it was at the expense 
of the pubHc. Practically all clearheaded Canadians 
(who were not personally interested in the company) 



Hudson's bay company 63 

saw that its monopoly was acting as a serious deterrent 
to the proper development of the west and north, and 
a movement was started to break up the monopoly. 
The Company's directors were sagacious enough to see 
that they could not indefinitely withstand pubHc senti- 
ment, and this faciHtated the negotiations between Sir 
George Cartier and the Hon. William Macdougall, 
Colonial commissioners, and representatives appointed 
by the Company. These brought about a transfer of 
all the Company's imperial domains, excepting small 
areas at factories. Into further details I cannot go, 
although there is yet much of interest to narrate. 



CHAPTER V 

CONFLICT: WARS IN AMERICA BETWEEN 
FRANCE AND ENGLAND 

FOR the causes of the really important wars between 
France and England in North America, we must 
of course look to conditions in Europe. But there were 
sundry minor belligerent affairs in the earlier years of 
Canadian history which demand a few minutes consider- 
ation. 

From the time of the settlement at Jamestown, Vir- 
ginia, 1607, England claimed the whole territory of 
northeastern America from the Florida seaboard up 
to the 45th parallel of North latitude. That line takes 
in about one-half of Nova Scotia, the southern one-third 
of Maine, is the northern boundary of Vermont and of 
New York east of the St. Lawrence River at Cornwall, 
Ontario, includes more than one-half of the province 
of Ontario as it was until recently, cuts across the tip 
of the southern peninsula of Michigan, bisects Green 
Bay, and passes west through St. Paul and Minneapolis. 
France, however, contended that her rights extended 
down to the 40th parallel : that is to say, to Philadelphia, 
Wheeling, West Virginia, Columbus, Ohio, Quincy, 
Illinois. It is for convenience only that modern names 
are used, because they help the reader to understand 
more clearly the conflicting claims of the two Powers, 



WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 65 

France and England, in the beginning of the seventeenth 
century. 

Upon the strength of France's claim, an expedition 
under the command of La Saussure headed for the 
Penobscot River, with the intention of establishing a 
colony of Jesuits and their followers. But the foggy 
weather that is so prevalent in that section during the 
simmfier, prevented their finding the mouth of the river 
and a landing was made on Mount Desert Island, where 
a settlement was begun and called Saint Sauveur. It 
was a thrifty colony for a time, but it was crushed out 
of existence by the English before long. 

The EngKsh declared that the central portion of 
Acadia belonged to them, and Mount Desert of course. 
Capt. Argall appeared off the coast of the island, in a 
vessel mounting fourteen guns, and demanded the sur- 
render of Saint Sauveur. Some sKght show of resist- 
ance being made — so he claimed — he assaulted and 
sacked the place, taking most of the inhabitants prisoners 
while a few escaped in a small boat. 

Argall deliberately stole La Saussure's commission and 
then declared that he and his people were unaccredited 
adventurers. There is not space to give full attention 
to the consequences of this cruel and dishonourable act; 
but when the facts became known to the English gov- 
ernment of Virginia, it was necessary either to support 
Argall or repudiate him as a pirate. The former course 
was chosen and it was determined to drive all French- 
men from every post occupied by them south of 45° 
North latitude. 

Sainte Croix and Port Royal were destroyed and 



66 THE COMING CANADA 

Acadia was devastated. Poutrincourt, the founder of 
Port Royal and even of Acadia itself, fled to France. 
Some compensation for the loss inflicted by the illegal 
acts of Argall and the other Virginians, was subsequently 
made by the British government. The episode can 
hardly be dignified by the appellation of ''war," yet it 
served to show the jealousy between the peoples of the 
two nations which early asserted itself in North America, 
and that feeling never was allayed until one of the Powers 
was driven out. 

After Argall had razed Port Royal, the English left 
Acadia without making effort to substantiate their 
claims to any part of the region. In 162 1, Sir William 
Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling (by which title 
he is better known), was given a grant of the province 
by James I of England. The next year a company of 
emigrants left Scotland with the intention of planting 
permanent colonies in the section which thereafter was 
to be called Nova Scotia, "New Scotland." As they 
arrived at St. John's, Newfoundland, late in.the autumn, 
they were obliged to pass the winter there. In the 
spring of 1623, their vessel sailed again and they coasted 
along the southern shore of Acadia to Cape Sable. The 
Frenchmen being again in full possession, the Scots 
turned about and returned home. 

In 1626, Alexander received from King James a grant 
conferring upon him "the Lordship of Canada." This 
was at the time of the war in France between Roman 
Catholics and Huguenots. To understand clearly the 
bearing of this matter upon Canadian history, careful 
attention should be given to the siege of La Rochelle, 



WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 67 

and the anger of the English Duke of Buckingham at 
the rehef of the town by Cardinal Richelieu, as well as 
to Buckingham's success in persuading the King of 
England to declare war against Louis XIII of France. 
Hostilities speedily spread to America and a naval 
expedition, under command of David Kirke — with 
whom were associated his brothers, Louis and Thomas 
— appeared in the St. Lawrence and Quebec surrendered 
in July, 1629; but was promptly restored to France upon 
re-establishing of peace between the parent countries. 

During this time it was not only the English from 
whom the Roman Catholic French in Canada suffered 
attack (religious freedom was virtually suspended in 
1628); but there were French Protestants who harassed 
them. The most formidable of these was Claude de La 
Tour, a ''baronet" of Nova Scotia by letters patent from 
the EngKsh king. His ships flew the English colours 
and were manned principally by Englishmen. 

A sentimental episode in connection wdth this enter- 
prise is the fact that when La Tour arrived before the 
French fort at Cape Sable, it was commanded by his 
own son. The father tried to persuade the son to accept 
the same favours from the King of England that had 
been bestowed upon the senior; and then he sought to 
induce his son to hold the fort as an English possession, 
not French. The yoimg man refused to do anything of 
the kind. After a few feeble and unsuccessful attempts 
at assaults, the elder La Tour gave up the task. But 
he dared not return either to England or France, so he 
simply deserted, letting his ships make their way back to 
England as best they could. The son refused to admit 



68 THE COMING CANADA 

his father mto the fort, but he erected for him a small 
house nearby which he furnished completely. There his 
father and his stepmother, who had been a Maid of 
Honour to the Queen of England, lived for several years. 

The demand for the restitution of Quebec was not 
favoured by all members of the French council of state, 
and for some time the fate of New France trembled in 
the balance; but probably the argument that carried 
most weight with those who were disposed to give up 
the attempt to create a realm in that inhospitable region 
of ice and hostile Indians, was the declaration that it 
was of the utmost importance to retain possession of all 
of New France in order to counterbalance the increasing 
importance which England was gaining through the 
expansion and increase of population in her American 
plantations. 

The demand was therefore pushed vigorously. Car- 
dinal Richelieu, to stimulate negotiations, equipped a 
fleet of six men-of-war, which he put under the command 
of Admiral de Razilli, and let it be known throughout 
France and in England that they would soon sail for 
the St. Lawrence, if negotiations were not speedily and 
satisfactorily brought to a conclusion. The treaty of 
St. Germain-en-Laye was signed March 29, 1632. By 
its terms England renounced all pretensions which had 
ever been made by her subjects, and promised not to 
permit them to interfere with French administration 
in Canada, so long as peace lasted. 

The historian Chalmers, when discussing this episode, 
says: "We may date from this treaty the commence- 
ment of a long series of evils for Great Britain and her 



WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 69 

colonies, the difficulties with the provincials afterwards, 
and, in some measure, the success of the American 
Revolution." It is probable that this event had some 
influence in weakening the allegiance of the British 
colonies in North America to the mother country. There 
is strongly suggestive evidence of this in the fact that 
in 1648 an envoy from New England arrived at Quebec, 
charged with a proposal to negotiate, between the 
British colonies in North America and the colonial 
administration of New France, independently of their 
respective Home Governments, a treaty of commerce 
and perpetual amity between the two sets of colonists. 

The most important suggestion was that both French 
and EngHsh subjects in North America should remain 
neutral in all quarrels between their respective mother 
countries, and, so far as the two colonists were able to 
do so, not permit European quarrels to be fought out in 
America. Although the proposal was seriously con- 
sidered by the French, the negotiations ended in failure 
to accomplish anything. The main reason for this was 
the counter proposal of the French, who demanded that 
a special alliance should be entered into by the two 
contracting parties to punish the Iroquois and reduce 
those pestiferous savages to absolute harmlessness. It 
is suggested by some writers that the French even insisted 
upon the absolute extermination of the Iroquois. 

The conament of the New England envoy upon this 
militant proposal is entitled to consideration. It was 
that such action would seem to stultify the declaration 
of perpetual amity by compelling the two parties to the 
compact forthwith to engage in war, although against 



70 



THE COMING CANADA 



a third party. Yet in view of the damage to life and 
property which those Indians were constantly inflicting 
upon the French, it is not altogether surprising that the 
latter should seek to secure rehef through the co-operation 
of their proposed alKes. We must, however, remember 
that the English settlers in New England and New York 
were disposed to look rather leniently upon the depreda- 
tions upon the Canadians by the Iroquois, provided 
their own settlements were not molested. 

We may pass with Httle more than mention, the civil 
war in Acadia about 1647. Isaac de Razilli had been 
appointed governor-general of the three subdivisions: 
first, Port Royal with all the territory westward as far 
as New England (an indefinite Kne of demarcation, as 
we know from negotiations in the nineteenth century); 
second, the country between Port Royal and Canso, the 
extreme eastern end of Nova Scotia; and third, the rest 
of Acadia, from Canso to Gaspe, Chevaher de La Tour 
and M. Denis being lieutenant-governors of the second 
and third. De Razilli no doubt committed an overt 
and unfriendly act in taking possession of the fort at 
Pemaquid, on Booth Bay, Maine, which the Massa- 
chusetts colonists had built as a storage place for their 
furskins. This act the New Englanders justly resented, 
and when La Tour and de Charnisey (who had suc- 
ceeded de Razilli, after the latter's death) disagreed 
to the point of fighting, they promptly acceded to La 
Tour's appeal for assistance. OHver Cromwell also 
took a hand in an attempt to recover Acadia; but the 
effort and its negative results can hardly be said to have 
attained international importance. 



WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 71 

In spite of the unsatisfactory conditions which are 
indicated by the minor episodes that have been men- 
tioned, and other similar affairs which may be passed 
over, the two nations, France and England, maintained 
the peace contemplated by the treaty of St. Germain- 
en-Laye until 1689. On the 12th of May in that year, 
an alliance between the Emperor of Germany, WilKam 
III of England, and the Dutch States-general was 
concluded at Vienna; and as a result war was declared 
between France and England. 

In 1688, Major, afterwards Sir, Edmund Andros was 
appointed governor of New England with New York 
included in his jurisdiction. Of Andros' character much 
might be said, but it is sufficient to state here that most 
historians describe him as tyrannical, vindictive, and 
implacable in his hatred of the French. Certainly, the 
annexation of New York to the neighbouring colonies 
was particularly odious to the people of that colony. 
Andros is not to be blamed for the fact, however just 
it may be to criticise adversely the interpretation he 
put upon his authority and powers. He followed the 
policy of his predecessor, Col. Richard Nicolls, in his 
treatment of the Indians. Not only did he foment 
the deadly enmity of the Iroquois for the Canadians, 
but he tried, unsuccessfully, to detach the Abenaquis 
(Abnakis) from their allegiance to the French. 

*'For this people honoured the countrymen of the 
missionaries who had made the Gospel known to them, 
and their nation became a Kving barrier to New France 
on that side, which no force sent from New England 
could surmount; insomuch that the Abenaquis, some 



72 THE COMING CANADA 

time afterwards, having crossed the borders of the 
English possessions, and harassed the remoter colonists, 
the latter were fain to apply to the Iroquois to enable 
them to hold their own." * 

The retort of the French was a suggestion of Chevalier 
de Callieres to Governor Denonville that an assault be 
made upon New York. This would divert invasion by 
a direct attack upon the enemy; a popular device in 
certain circumstances. In order to secure the sanction 
and support of the government at Paris, de CalHeres 
sailed for France to assure the King, Louis XIV, that 
it was the only way to save Canada to France. 

For several years there had been quiet in New France, 
and incompetent officials had failed totally to compre- 
hend that the calm was portentous. A storm was 
gathering and in August, 1689, it broke. A band of 
1400 Iroquois warriors fell upon the little hamlet of 
Lachine, at the western end of Montreal Island, and the 
frightful ''Massacre of Lachine" was perpetrated. 

On the 1 8th October, 1689, de Frontenac, accompanied 
by de Callieres, landed at Quebec and found himself, 
upon taking up again the administration of the colonial 
government, obliged to contend both with the English 
colonists and The Five Nations. Later, about 17 13, 
the Tuscaroras were received into the Iroquois con- 
federacy, which was thereafter called ''The Six Nations." 

France, in Europe, was now engaged in conflict with 
other Five Nations at once. Great Britain, the German 
Empire, Holland, Spain, and Savoy; because the Revo- 
cation of the Edict of Nantes had aroused the Protestant 

* Bell, EisU oj Can, 



WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 73 

nations to action against France.* The French-Cana- 
dian colonists had no personal interest in that European 
contest, but they were expected to render assistance, 
and did so, by fighting with the New Englanders, who, 
on their part, were but too willing to attack New France. 

De Callieres' plan was put into operation, and Admiral 
de la Cafl&niere, with two men-of-war, was ordered to 
scourge the Atlantic coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
to New York, inflicting whatever damage he could to 
shipping and settlements. He was then to blockade 
the port of New York, "and there wait the results of 
an invasion of the province, on the land side, by the 
Canadians. If, as was expected, the province of New 
York fell into French hands, its Roman Catholic inhab- 
itants were to be allowed to remain, after having sworn 
fidelity to their new masters; but the chief functionaries 
and principal colonists were to be kept prisoners till 
they were ransomed. As for the commonalty, they were 
to be transported to New England and Pennsylvania. 
De Callieres was then to be installed as governor of the 
province." f 

One of the ghastly incidents of the campaign from 
the north was the assault and massacre at Schenectady 
(Corlaer) in reprisal for the Lachine Massacre. Another 
was the attack upon Salmon Falls (New Hampshire). 
A third was the expedition from Quebec to Casco at 
the mouth of the Kennebec River. Subsequently came 
the renewal of attack upon Quebec, and the siege of that 

* I do not take time to explain the seeming incongruity of Roman 
Catholic Spain joining a Protestant coalition against France. She did 
not remain long in that opposition. J. K. G. 

t Bell, op. cit. 



74 THE COMING CANADA 

place by a fleet under command of Sir William Phipps, 
a New England born British subject, after his capture 
of Port Royal in 1690. Appearing before the town on 
the 1 6th of October, he sent to de Frontenac a somewhat 
bombastic summons to surrender. To this the governor 
returned a very tart reply and the attack began: but 
nothing important was accompHshed, and after a few 
days the British fleet sailed away, October 21st. 

When Phipps' ships opened the bombardment of 
Quebec the batteries in the lower town promptly returned 
the fire and fairly effectively. ''Some of the first shots 
fired brought down the flag of Phipps' own vessel. 
Seeing this, some of the men on shore swam out and 
fished up the prize, despite a discharge of small arms 
directed on them by the enemy. This flag, which was 
afterwards suspended to the ceiling of Quebec Cathedral, 
as a trophy, there remained tifl the edifice was consumed 
during the siege of 1759." 

With the characteristically varying chances of war, 
this conflict in North America lasted until the Peace of 
Utrecht. The Hudson Bay campaign has been already 
alluded to. French historians claim, and this is not 
seriously disputed by Enghsh authorities, that de Fron- 
tenac's energy and skill overcame all obstacles; ''that 
the war was most glorious for the Canadians, so few in 
number compared with their adversaries; and that, 
far from succumbing to their enemies, they carried the 
war into the adversaries' camp, and struck at the heart 
of their most remote possessions." 

Were space available it would be proper to discuss 
other events until "The Treaty of Ryswick" (September 



WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 75 

21, 1697), which really brought about no substantial 
cessation of hostilities between the French and English 
in North America. The powerful fleet of warships and 
transports carrying five regiments, sent from England 
to Canada by way of Boston, in 171 1, was to have 
co-operated with a land force of several thousand New 
England regular and irregular troups, with Indian allies, 
who were to march by way of Lake Champlain, and all 
combine for an attack upon Quebec. The fleet, how- 
ever, met with serious misfortune almost immediately 
upon entering the river, and what vessels escaped ship- 
wreck returned home with their own crews and the 
few who were saved from the ships that had been 
driven on the rocks. When the land forces heard of 
the disaster that had befallen the fleet, they too retraced 
their steps. 

Thus Canada was saved from further invasion for 
the time being, and in January, 171 2, negotiations for 
peace were commenced. These were procrastinated 
until March, 17 13, when the plenipotentiaries of France 
and Spain on one side, and those of England, Holland, 
Prussia, the German States, Savoy, and Denmark, 
signed the "Treaty of Utrecht." It is declared by some 
writers that the important matter of definite boundaries 
of French and Enghsh claims in North America was 
intentionally left undecided in this treaty, in order that 
this omission might serve as a pretext at any future 
time for going to war again in that part of the world. 
This seems hardly to be a fair view of the matter. In 
the first place it is extremely doubtful if either England 
of France gave much concern to such Kmitations; and 



76 THE COMING CANADA 

in the second place, neither one probably knew just 
what it did claim. 

In the year following the execution of that treaty, 
France gave great attention to fortifying Louisbourg, 
and it is said that the equivalent of something hke ten 
miUion dollars were spent upon this undertaking. The 
place certainly was, after Quebec, the strongest fortified 
seaport in America, and when the British forces under- 
took to capture it in 1745 and 1758 immensely powerful 
fleets and armies were fitted out, indicating the opinion 
strategists held of it. 

In 1744, France again declared war and the American 
colonies, both French and British, were speedily involved 
in the conflict. A force from New England, miHtia, 
artisans, and farm hands, attacked Louisbourg and 
secured its capitulation, in April, 1745. This was in 
retaliation for the capture and burning of the British 
settlement at Canso (Canseau), Acadia, by Duquesnel, 
governor of Cape Breton. The conquest of Louisbourg 
was due more to lack of discipline, absence of competent 
commanders, and inharmony within, than because of 
effective attack from without. France made several 
ineffectual attempts to recover this important post, 
which was, however, restored to her by the Treaty of 
Aix-la-Chapelle, October, 1748, much to the disgust of 
the New England people. 

In 1753 may be said to have begun the hostilities 
which were to culminate in the expulsion of France 
from North America. It began through disputes as to 
rights in the Ohio Valley, from which region the French 
strove to exclude English traders; while English colonists 



WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 77 

persisted in assuming that it was British territory. It 
was at this time that George Washington made his 
appearance. He was then an officer in the Virginia 
mihtia and only twenty- two years of age. But Wash- 
ington's regrettable attack upon M. de Jumonville, as 
well as his subsequent discomfiture at Fort Necessity, 
with many other episodes, must be passed over. 

It is well, however, for the reader, who wishes to 
understand clearly the details of this final conflict be- 
tween France and Great Britain in North America, to 
know something about the various posts held by the 
contending parties; from Acadia, or Nova Scotia, to 
Louisbourg on Isle Roy ale (Cape Breton Island). Also 
of the many frontier forts from Lake Champlain through 
New York to the Lakes and down into the Ohio Valley 
at Duquesne (on the site of the present city of Pittsburg: 
a part of the old fort is still standing). This was the 
nearest to the British posts, Fort Necessity and Fort 
Cumberland, on the Potomac River. Also the French 
posts along the north shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie, 
and those which served to keep open the Kne of com- 
munications between the Lakes and the first outpost 
of Louisiana, Fort de Chartres. 

Montreal was scarcely furnished with any fortifications 
at all. "The city has nothing but a terraced wall, built 
for the sole purpose of preventing a surprise or coup de 
main, and quite incapable of resisting artillery." Quebec 
was, however, considered by the French to be virtually 
impregnable. 

The plan of campaign decided upon after Gen. Brad- 
dock's arrival in 1754 to take supreme command, was 



78 THE COMING CANADA 

to despatch four expeditions: the first to the Valley of 
the Ohio; the second against Fort Niagara, at the mouth 
of the river; the third to Lake Champlain, with the 
intention of capturing Crown Point; and the fourth to 
drive the French from those parts of Acadia which 
remained in their possession. 

The French resolved upon counter attacks. One of 
these was to drive the EngHsh back from the south 
shore of Lake Ontario by a furious rush against Oswego. 
All commanding officers at mihtary posts throughout 
French territory were instructed to be vigilant and, in 
case of attack, to maintain their position to the last 
extremities. 

Because of "Braddock's Defeat," as his failure is 
commonly called, the second of the English expeditions 
Hkewise failed to accompHsh its purpose. That against 
Crown Point was partly successful; while the Acadian 
enterprise was entirely so; the forts surrendering with 
scarcely a pretence of resistance. As one of the conse- 
quences of this British success, came the deportation 
of the Acadians. Of Longfellow's use of this episode 
in his poem, Evangeline, nothing need be said; but a 
more practical aspect of it is one that is not so well 
known. ''Scarcely had the Anglo-American troops dis- 
charged the lamentable duties which had been assigned 
to them, when the soldiers were struck with horror at 
their situation. Standing surrounded by rich and well- 
cultivated fields, they found themselves, nevertheless, in 
the midst of profound soHtude. They beheld no enemy 
to attack, no friend to succour. Volumes of smoke 
ascending from the sites of the burnt habitations marked 



WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 79 

the spots where, a few days before, happy families dwelt. 
Domestic animals, as if seeking the return of their mas- 
ters, gathered and moved uneasily around the smoking 
niins. During the long nights the watch-dogs howled 
among the scenes of desolation, and uttered plaintive 
sounds, as if to recall their ancient protectors and the 
roofs under which they had been sheltered." * 

The campaign of 1755 was, in its general results, not 
unfavourable to the French. They were undisputed 
masters of the Ohio Valley, and they still held their 
positions at Niagara and Crown Point. The most 
disastrous effect of the campaign upon the English 
came as a consequence of Braddock's defeat; because 
during the winter and spring of 1755 and 1756, war- 
parties, composed for the most part of Indians, went 
from Fort Duquesne to ravage the settlements in Penn- 
sylvania and Virginia. The EngHsh colonists were most 
cruelly treated: more than a thousand of them, men, 
women, and children, were killed or carried into captivity 
that was worse than death. 

The economic condition of the French colony was at 
that time most unsatisfactory. The Intendant Bigot 
and his creatures were administering affairs solely for 
their own pecuniary benefit, and prices of food stuffs 
were raised by Bigot, who had the power to fix prices, 
until the common people could scarcely buy anything. 
As for government stores, including supplies for the 
army and navy, ammunition, etc., the rapacity of these 
leeches was insatiable. 

After Gen. Dieskau had been defeated at Fort Carillon 

* Ferland et Laverdiere, Cours d'histoire du Canada. 



8o THE COMING CANADA 

(Ticonderoga) by Gen. Johnson, the French officers 
reported to the Home Government that their ejffective 
force of regulars was reduced to 1680 men, and they 
added most discouraging statements about the colony. 
The French Government responded by sending one 
thousand regular troops and over a million and a quarter 
francs in money. With these soldiers and suppKes there 
came to Canada the famous General, De Montcalm, and 
in his staff were a number of distinguished officers. 

Montcalm promptly decided to carry out the plan 
of attacking Oswego, and this was successfully accom- 
plished, the result adding greatly to his prestige. In 
1757, the French captured Fort William Henry, on Lake 
Champlain, and the English were subjected to all the 
horrors of Indian warfare. In 1758, Louisbourg was 
taken by the English under the command of Gen. Wolfe, 
and then Montcalm began to realise that the dreams of 
generations of Frenchmen of establishing the trans- 
Atlantic ''Empire of New France" were never to become 
anything tangible. 

There were, to be sure, some successes by the French 
arms, but they were not sufficient to check the tide of 
defeat. In 1759, it may be said, France abandoned 
the colony to its fate; that is, to fight for its own exist- 
ence. Most of the Indian allies had been seduced from 
their allegiance to the French; frontier posts had been 
captured by the British or abandoned by the French, 
and slowly but surely the war was narrowing down to 
the short stretch of the St. Lawrence River from Quebec 
to Montreal. 

The naval contingent furnished to effect the capture 



WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 8l 

of Quebec comprised a fleet of fifty vessels, commanded 
by Admirals Saunders, Holmes, and Durell; the fighting 
force consisting of 7600 regulars and 1000 marines. On 
land, Wolfe — then only about thirty-two years of age 
— was in supreme command as Major-General, and 
under him were Brigadier- Generals Monckton, Town- 
shend, and Murray. There were eight full regiments of 
the line, two battalions of Royal Americans, companies 
of light infantry, grenadiers, engineers, artillerymen, 
and some more marines. For a full account of the siege 
of Quebec, the reader must refer to some other authority, 
in which all the intensely interesting episodes are given 
in deserved detail; it is too long to insert here. 

Montcalm refused to be drawn from his fortifications 
until that memorable scaling of the cliffs by the British 
troops, who made their way up from the river by what 
was assumed to be an impassable trail. Then the 
French were compelled to leave their fortifications, 
being threatened in their rear, and there ensued the 
battle on the Plains of Abraham, September 13, 1759, in 
which both commanders lost their lives. 

Although not strictly the end of the war, nor indeed 
of French offensive, that battle put the seal upon New 
France's fate. Quebec was surrendered to the British 
on September 18, 1759; but in the following winter the 
new garrison was in rather sore straits; not so much for 
want of supplies, but because of the rigorous climate 
to which the British were not enured. The troops suf- 
fered much more, on account of necessary exposure, 
than did the supernumeraries and the women. 

Chevalier de Levis, upon whom devolved the chief 



82 THE COMING CANADA 

command of the French after Montcalm's death, harassed 
the British; and there was considerable fighting the 
next year, the French essaying to re-capture Quebec. 
On April 28, 1760, the battle of Sainte Foye, some- 
times called ''The second battle of the Plains of Abra- 
ham," was fought. The French were victorious; but 
were not able to follow up their success with the re- 
capture of the town. De Levis besieged Quebec for 
eighteen days, until May 17th. On the 9th of May, 
however, it began to look very dubious for the French, 
because a British warship appeared below the place. 
On the 15th, the first division of the fleet came up the 
river, and on the 17th arrangements were made to raise 
the siege; de Levis retiring to Montreal. In September 
that place capitulated, upon honourable terms, and thus 
ended the French regime in Canada. The resident 
population, although chagrined as to the failure of 
French arms, were not at all displeased to be relieved 
from the burdens of active warfare, even if it did mean 
their transfer from French to EngHsh allegiance. The 
active mihtary forces and the civil authorities who 
declined to take the oath of allegiance to King George 
II were sent to France. The war in Europe continued 
until near the end of 1762. Negotiations for peace 
were then entered upon with such favourable results 
and preKminaries were so promptly agreed upon, that 
on February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed 
by Great Britain, France, and Spain. 



CHAPTER VI 
TEE DOMINION OF CANADA 

KING GEORGE II, who was on the throne of Great 
Britain and Ireland when the French regime in 
Canada ended, died on the 25th of October, 1760, and 
was succeeded by his son, George III. The latter issued 
a proclamation on the 7th of October, 1763, which was 
intended to give vitality to the terms of the Treaty of 
Paris, February loth of that year. In this document he 
constituted *' within the countries and islands, ceded 
and confirmed to Us by the said treaty, four distinct 
and separate governments, styled and called by the 
names of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and 
Grenada." We have to do only with the first of these; 
yet it may interest the reader to know that "the govern- 
ment of Grenada was in the West Indies, and the govern- 
ments of East and West Florida, excluding a debatable 
strip of territory which was annexed to the State of 
Georgia, were co-extensive with the new province which 
had been acquired from Spain." * 

The student who thinks of Canada as the great 
dominion which it now is, will be surprised when he 
looks at a map of the Government of Quebec for which 
that proclamation provided. Towards Labrador, it 

* A History of Canada 1763-1812. Sir C. P. Lucas, K.C.M.G., C.B. 
1909. 



84 THE COMING CANADA 

was bounded by the river St. John, a small stream which 
empties into the St. Lawrence opposite the western end 
of Anticosti Island. From the headwaters of the St. 
John a straight line was drawn to the southern end of 
Lake Nipissing, passing through Lake St. John, whence 
issues the Saguenay River. It may be remarked that 
as a geographical or surveyor's feat, this is impossible. 
It was manifestly the intention to have this line approxi- 
mately parallel to the St. Lawrence River. From 
Nipissing, the line turned sharply to the southeast and 
crossed the St. Lawrence some distance above Montreal, 
at about the present town of Cornwall. Then it fol- 
lowed the 45 th parallel of North Latitude, across the 
outlet of Lake Champlain, across Lake Memphre- 
magog and the headwaters of the St. Thomas River to 
''The Land's Height;" that is the watershed between 
the lower St. Lawrence and the Atlantic basins, to the 
Restigouche River, which is followed to the head of 
Chaleur Bay, and along its north shore to the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence. The government included Gaspe Penin- 
sula; but excluded Anticosti Island, which, together 
with all the Labrador country east of the St. John River 
and northward to Hudson Strait, was placed under the 
jurisdiction of Newfoundland. Practically, then, this 
government was about the same as the province of 
Quebec until greatly enlarged two years ago. 

The territory which subsequently — for a short time 
— came to be known as British America, was not an 
acquisition to the British Empire that was gained with- 
out a struggle. British Canada was not born without 
severe pains of parturition, and the Dominion did not 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA 85 

attain maturity without ills in childhood and adolescence. 
Nor was its development into what it is, geographically, 
to-day an absolutely peaceful progress of events. Prob- 
ably the record of ills and struggles which mark its 
history from 1763 to 1867 and again from that latter 
year until the present time, have had much to do with 
moulding the character of the people. 

It must not be understood that this Government of 
Quebec is all there was of Canada in 1763. Cape Breton 
Island, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward's), New 
Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were already in a separate 
government styled the Government of Nova Scotia. 
The northern limit of the province of Canada marched 
with the boundary of Rupert's Land, under the adminis- 
tration of the Hudson's Bay Company, yet reckoned a 
part of the imperial domain. 

Canada did not, therefore, in 1763 really extend west of 
the western boundary of this Government of Quebec; for 
no provision had been made for administering the great 
territory which included the whole basin of the Great 
Lakes and reached thence down to the Mississippi River. 

Although issued in October, 1763, the proclamation 
did not reach America and become operative until 
August 10, 1764. Inasmuch as the document made 
no mention of the great country west of the Alleghany 
Mountains, which Pennsylvania, Virginia, and other 
colonies claimed with practically no western limits until 
the shores of the Pacific were reached, the proclamation 
was far from being satisfactory to the Atlantic coast 
colonies; that is New England, New York, Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. 



86 THE COMING CANADA 

Within Quebec itself, too, the proclamation was calcu- 
lated to do much harm, and scarcely any good. For 
while rehgious liberty was guaranteed to all the inhab- 
itants, yet an oath was required in certain circumstances 
which, it will presently be seen, no Roman CathoHc could 
possibly take. The governor was ordered to summon a 
general assembly ''in such manner and form as is used 
and directed in those colonies and provinces in America 
which are under Our immediate government," as soon as 
the state and circumstances of the colony admitted. 

Yet persons who might be elected to serve in such 
an assembly were required, before they could sit and 
vote, to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and 
sign a solemn declaration against the doctrines of tran- 
substantiation, the adoration of the Virgin, and the 
Sacrifice of the Mass. This effectually excluded the 
men of the seventy thousand French- Canadian Roman 
CathoUcs, and would leave the government in the hands 
of the Protestants, who then numbered, men, women, 
and children, only about three hundred souls. Further- 
more, the governor was authorised, until the afore- 
mentioned assembly could be called, to create courts 
for the trial and determination of all civil and criminal 
cases, "according to law and equity, and as near as may 
be agreeable to the laws of England." This was a 
measure extremely offensive to the French people: to 
the Romanists on the ground of religious discrimination; 
to the few French Protestants because of loyalty to their 
compatriots. 

Just about this time, in 1766, Gen. Murray, who had 
been in Canada since Wolfe's arrival, and in command 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA 87 

after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, was made 
provisional governor by royal warrant. He gave his 
approval to the election by the chapter of the Roman 
Catholics of Quebec of Monsigneur Briand to be the 
Bishop of the newly created Government. This was a 
most politic measure; it went a long way towards recon- 
ciling the French Canadians to their changed conditions, 
and it led them to think that in time they might receive 
full consideration in other important matters. 

It is hardly necessary to state that in the ten years 
which followed the creation of the bishopric of Quebec, 
the British Government was greatly concerned about 
the condition of affairs in the English colonies south of 
Canada. I cannot do better than to quote again from 
that eminent historian Sir C. P. Lucas: *'It was said 
of the Spartans that warring was their salvation and 
ruling was their ruin. The saying holds true of various 
peoples and races in history. A militant race has often 
proved to be deficient in the quahties which ensure 
stable, just, and permanent government; and in such 
cases, when peace supervenes on war, an era of decline 
and fall begins for those whom fighting has made great. 
But even when a conquering race has capacity for gov- 
ernment, there come times in its career when Aristotle's 
dictum in part holds good. It applied, to some extent, 
to the EngHsh in North America. As long as they were 
faced by the French on the western continent, common 
danger and common effort held the mother country 
and the colonies together. Security against a foreign 
foe brought difficulties which ended in civil war, and the 
Peace of 1763 was the beginning of dissolution. '^ 



88 THE COMING CANADA 

In the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the 
Home Government could not give sufficient attention 
to its newest American colony, and that, as a consequence, 
conditions in Canada were far from being satisfactory 
to all interested parties. There was every disposition 
on the part of the British Secretariat of Colonial Affairs 
to do for Canada whatever might be for the good of all. 
It meant, of course, a blending of Enghsh and French 
laws in a manner that was an exceedingly difficult matter 
at times. 

The Quebec Act of 1774 was a most important law 
passed by the British parliament, and it "has always 
been considered the charter of the special privileges 
which the French Canadians have enjoyed ever since, 
and which, in the course of a century, made their province 
one of the most influential sections of British North 
America." * 

The preamble of that Act made radical changes in 
the extent and boundaries of the former Government of 
Quebec. Eastward, it was made to include all that 
portion of the mainland (Labrador) which had previ- 
ously been assigned to Newfoundland. To the west 
and southwest, the Ohio and Mississippi regions were 
included, so that the older colonies' claims were now 
dehmited at the crest of the Appalachians. This action 
roused much protest from the colonies which had asserted 
a right to territory westward perhaps to the Pacific 
Ocean, and their cause was championed by the Earl of 
Chatham, William Pitt, who had assimied to make 
himself the advocate for the older colonies. 

* Bourinot, op. cit. 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA 89 

It was considered inexpedient just then to convoke 
a general assembly for Quebec, and accordingly the 
administration of the province was placed in the hands 
of a governor and legislative council, the latter com- 
posed of twenty-three members, residents of the province. 
Both governor and council were to be appointed by 
the sovereign. Sir Guy Carleton was the first governor 
under the Quebec Act. He returned to Canada from 
England in September, 1774, but the legislative council 
associated with him was not appointed until the follow- 
ing August. Among its twenty-two members were eight 
French Canadians whose names appear conspicuously 
in the contemporaneous history of Quebec Province. 

The first meeting of the council was held on the 17th 
of August, 1775, but it was compelled to adjourn on the 
7th of the following month because of the invasion of 
Canada by troops of the Continental Congress from the 
thirteen colonies then in open revolt, but not yet fight- 
ing for Independence. 

This is not the place to discuss the War for American 
Independence; yet a calm and dispassionate view of it 
in the light of history, compels the admission that had 
there been energy and ability in the British leaders, the 
result (that is victory for the United States) would have 
been greatly deferred, or the war would have involved 
more of Europe than it did. As it was, during the last 
years of the war. Great Britain was compelled to fight 
not only the American colonies, openly assisted by 
France, but France, Spain, and Holland as well; and 
in all Europe, Great Britain had not a single ally. It 
was a condition of affairs which amply justifies the 



go THE COMING CANADA 

declaration of all patriotic citizens of the United States, 
that the God of battles was on the side of their fore- 
fathers from 1775 to 1783. In the success of the three 
millions of people armed in the sacred cause of Liberty, 
we must recognise the hand of Providence, or else we 
must impugn the sincerity of the British statesmen and 
commanders, by declaring that they were not fighting 
to win. 

But we must give some thought to the connection of 
the War of American Independence with Canada. Great 
Britain had no reason to thank her sovereign or his 
ministers for saving Canada in 1775. The credit for 
that was due only to the sentiment of the colonists them- 
selves and to the calmness and good judgment of Gov. 
Carleton. The lack of policy in coupling the Quebec 
Act in parliament with the obnoxious Boston Port Bill, 
and other measures especially intended for the discom- 
fiture of Massachusetts, amounted to crass stupidity. 
All the colonists, save the LoyaHsts (a very large pro- 
portion, it must be admitted), looked upon this group 
of parliamentary measures as indicating a fixed policy 
of the British Government to crush the English-speak- 
ing colonists in North America. The invasion of Canada 
by Benedict Arnold in 1775 was, therefore, a very 
popular effort with all revolutionists in the older colonies. 
Chambly and St. John's, the keys of Canada by the 
way of Lake Champlain, were captured and Montreal 
surrendered. The governor retired to Quebec, and 
there made preparations for a vigorous defence. 

Just at this critical moment Bishop Briand issued an 
episcopal letter in which he drew the attention of the 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA 9I 

French Canadians to the many benefits they had derived 
from British rule, and he called upon his followers to 
unite with the English in defending the province. The 
effect of this monition was excellent (from the British 
point of view) and rendered totally ineffective the effort 
of Chase, Franklin, and the Carrolls of Maryland to 
persuade the Roman Catholic French in Canada to 
give their support to the revolutionary colonists. It 
must not be forgotten, however, that many individual 
habitants gave material assistance to the colonial in- 
vaders; yet this was entirely a sordid matter. 

''The Fourteenth Colony" was saved to Great Britain, 
and it is probable that few even patriotic Americans 
now regret it. At the close of the Revolutionary War, 
many who are called United Empire LoyaKsts left the 
United States and settled in Canada; others went back 
to England. Their loss was a serious one to the new 
nation, for as a rule they were people of substantial 
means. 

After the Revolution, when Canada's independence 
of the United States was assured, the development of 
representative institutions was rapid. The provinces 
of New Brunswick, Lower and Upper Canada were 
created: the first on August 16, 1784, the other two on 
March 7, 1791. The progress of political development 
in Canada, from 1792 to 181 2, was not absolutely peace- 
ful, and there were premonitions of that racial strife 
— between the weak French majority and the strong 
British minority — which later caused serious trouble. 

The statesmen and historians of Canada look upon 
the war of 18 12 with anything but a kindly feeling, and 



92 THE COMING CANADA 

with satisfaction that the attempt to conquer their 
country was so unsuccessful. After that unpleasant 
episode, the development of Canada was rapid, although 
as long ago as 1789 Chief Justice Smith, first president 
of the legislative council of Lower Canada, wrote to 
Lord Dorchester (Sir Guy Carleton had been raised to 
the peerage with that title), sketching a plan for uniting 
all the provinces of British North America under one 
general administration. Other Canadian statesmen and 
jurists expressed themselves as in favour of such a 
movement and gradually the desire for fusion came to 
be something more tangible than merely ''in the air." 

In 1 86 1 the maritime provinces. Nova Scotia, New 
Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, took active 
measures to effect union; and in 1864 a convention was 
called at Charlottetown, P.E.L, to arrange for this. 
Canada sent a delegation and to its representations of 
the desirability of the larger scheme, of union of all the 
provinces, favourable consideration was given. In 1864 
a general convention at Quebec passed seventy-two 
resolutions which formed the basis of the Act of Union, 
subsequently passed by the imperial parliament, West- 
minster. 

Addresses supporting the resolutions to Queen Victoria 
were submitted to the legislature of Canada in 1863, and 
passed by large majorities. The progress towards com- 
plete union was not absolutely clear and free; but there 
is not space to consider all the difficulties. On the 17 th 
of February, 1867, a bill entitled "An Act for the Union 
of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the 
Government thereof, and for purposes connected there- 



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THE DOMINION OF CANADA 93 

with/' was submitted to the British House of Lords by 
the Earl of Carnarvon, then Secretary of State for the 
Colonies. It passed both houses with but little dis- 
cussion, and on March 29th received Queen Victoria's 
signature as "The British North America Act, 1867." 

The Dominion of Canada thereupon stepped into the 
list of the federal states of the world on July ist, 1867, 
when the Act was promulgated throughout all the 
interested provinces. British Columbia held back for 
a time, until given assurance of railway connection with 
the eastern provinces. Prince Edward Island was for 
a time outside the Dominion, and the great North West 
Territories remained to be organised. In 187 1, British 
Columbia threw in her lot with her sisters; in 1873, 
Prince Edward Island followed suit; and gradually the 
organisation of all British possessions on the continent 
of North America, save the little strip of Labrador 
littoral which is still poHtically annexed to Newfound- 
land and excepting, too, the great island itself, came 
into the list, and the administration of the Dominion of 
Canada was perfected. 



CHAPTER VII 

TEE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA AND COGNATE 

SUBJECTS 

OTTAWA, the capital of the Dominion, is one of 
the most attractive cities in North America, but 
in its physical and social aspects it will be considered 
in a later chapter. The place dates from the year 1826 
only. At that time Col. By, of the Royal Engineers, 
commenced the cutting of the Rideau Canal, which 
connects the Ottawa River with the St. Lawrence at 
Kingston. This canal makes use of the chain of lakes 
and small streams which intervene between the two 
greater rivers. 

The little hamlet which naturally sprang up and 
gave shelter and habitation to the force of workmen, 
was at first called By town; but this name was changed 
before long to Ottawa. It owes its promotion to the 
dignity of being first the colonial and then the dominion 
capital to circumstances that were not altogether cred- 
itable. 

When the union of Upper and Lower Canada was 
effected in 1840, Kingston was made the provincial 
capital. After a while the seat of government was 
transferred to Montreal, and that city held the honour 
for some time. But while parliament was sitting at 
Montreal, a bill was passed which provided for compen- 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 95 

sation for damages unflicted upon those whose property 
had been destroyed or injured during ''the patriots' 
rebellions." 

There were two of these unpleasant episodes. The 
first broke out in Lower Canada soon after the close of 
the war of 18 12-15, ^.nd culminated under the leadership 
of Louis J. Papineau in 1837. The second was in the 
following year, and occurred in Upper Canada. Both 
were in the nature of turbulent protest by the French 
Canadians against what demagogues led them to believe 
was unfair and unlawful race discrimination. The first 
was for some time a very serious matter, causing — 
directly or indirectly' — the loss of many lives and the 
destruction or injury of much property: the second was 
less important and was promptly suppressed. 

In 1839, the special council of Lower Canada and the 
legislature of Upper Canada, passed acts providing for 
the compensation of those loyal inhabitants of these 
provinces who had sustained loss during the rebellions 
and because of those outbreaks. Eventually a com- 
mission was appointed to consider the claims, and it 
reported favourably upon a considerable number of 
them. Inasmuch as the Treasury funds did not permit 
of an appropriation in money, provision was made for 
paying those approved claims by the issue of debentures 
to the amount of $400,000. The bill was passed by the 
legislature by a large majority and Lord Elgin, then 
Governor- General, signed it on April 25, 1849, ^^^ 
affixed the great seal. The bonds were promptly taken 
up and it looked as if all were going well. Suddenly, 
however, a fierce storm of opposition broke out. A mob 



g6 THECOMINGCANADA 

insulted the Governor- General and even threatened his 
life. It broke into and practically destroyed the house 
of parliament — which had formerly been St. Anne 
Market House — and with it the State papers and many 
precious reHcs, valuable books, pictures, etc. 

Montreal could no longer be permitted the dignity of 
being the capital, and the seat of legislature became 
peripatetic for five years, meeting alternately at Toronto 
and Quebec. When Queen Victoria was requested to 
designate a fixed capital, she chose Ottawa, in 1857. 
The place had grown to be a lumber town of some impor- 
tance, but the situation is such a splendid one that all 
concurred in approving the wisdom of Her Majesty's 
choice. In these incidents, we have a very clear hint 
at the progress of the great Dominion development; and 
it is hardly necessary to state that there has been much 
of storm and stress. 

A brief summary of the original elements of the 
Canadian State, and its development into the Dominion, 
is advisable. At first there were Upper and Lower 
Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, created imder 
the Act of March, 1867. Provision was made in the Act 
for a constitution ''similar in principle to that of the 
United Kingdom." The executive authority is vested in 
the sovereign of Great Britain, and it is carried on in his * 
name by a Governor- General and a Privy Council. The 
legislative power is exercised by a Parliament of two 
houses, the Senate and the House of Commons. 

* The Salic Law not having been adopted by Great Britain, the 
masculine pronoun includes the feminine, as is provided in all laws, I 
believe. J. K. G. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 97 

Provision was made for the admission of Prince 
Edward Island and British Columbia, the North West 
Territories, and Newfoundland. As has been stated, 
Newfoundland is the only one of these which has not 
availed itself of this privilege, and it is not likely to do 
so. In 1869, the great North West Territories were 
admitted into British North America by purchase from 
the Hudson's Bay Company. From a portion of this 
acquisition, the province of Manitoba was created and 
admitted into the confederation on July 15th, 1870. 
On May i6th, 187 1, Prince Edward Island was admitted 
by an Imperial Order in Council (London) and British 
Colimibia on July 20th, 187 1. 

Certain other provisional districts were created out 
of the southern portions of the purchase from the 
Hudson's Bay Company, Alberta, Athabaska, Assini- 
boia, and Saskatchewan. These were later combined 
into the two provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, 
which were admitted into the Dominion on Septem- 
ber I, 1905. 

The Dominion Senators are appointed for Hfe "by 
summons of the Governor-General under the Great 
Seal of Canada." Provisions for their impeachment for 
cause and cancelling of their appointment are made. 
There are now 87 Senators, 24 from Ontario, 24 from 
Quebec, 10 from Nova Scotia, 10 from New Bruns- 
wick, 4 from Manitoba, 3 from British Columbia, 4 
each from Prince Edward Island, Alberta, and Saskat- 
chewan. It will be seen at once that the composition 
of the Upper House of the Dominion Legislature is very 
different from that of the United States Senate, and that 



98 THE COMING CANADA 

it is not representative of provinces or population in 
the same sense. Each Senator must be thirty years 
of age. He may be either a native born or a naturaUsed 
British subject. He must be an actual resident of the 
province from which he is appointed, and therein be 
possessed of property, real or personal, of the actual 
value of $4000. Change of residence of course operates 
de facto to invalidate his appointment. 

Members of the House of Commons are elected by 
the people for a term of five years, unless Parliament 
is sooner dissolved, when a new general election is 
ordered by the Governor-General's writ. At present, 
the ratio of representation in this Lower House is one 
member for 25,637 of population. The province of 
Quebec is always to have 65 members, and the other 
provinces proportionately, according to their popula- 
tions at each decennial census. At this time, the House 
of Commons consists of 221 members: Ontario 86, 
Quebec 65, Nova Scotia 18, New Brunswick 13, Manitoba 
10, British Columbia 7, Prince Edward Island 4, Saskat- 
chewan 10, Alberta 7, Yukon Territory i. As the popu- 
lation of those portions of the Dominion which are 
entitled to be represented in the House of Commons is 
only about 5,500,000 (an approximation that is some- 
what hazardous, because the immigration has been very 
great during the past two years), it must be admitted 
that the complaint that the body is cumbersome and 
disproportionately large in numbers, seems to be well 
taken. The 48 States of the United States have a 
population of something like ninety miUions, and the 
members in the House of Representatives number 400. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 99 

In the Dominion the ratio is one to 25,637; in the United 
States it is one to 193,284. 

''The members of the House of Commons are elected 
by constituencies, the electors of which are supplied by 
franchises under the control of the several provincial 
assemblies. The qualifications for voting at provincial 
elections vary in the several provinces. Voting is by 
ballot." There is a small property qualification for 
the right of suffrage; it varies in the different provinces 
and territories. In the North West Territory there is 
no property qualification. The Speaker of the House 
of Commons (elected by the members) receives an 
annual salary of $4000, and each member an allowance of 
$2500 for the session, from which, in the case of ordinary 
members, a deduction of $15 a day is made for absences. 
One curious phase of emoluments is that the Leader of 
the Opposition is paid $7000 in addition to the allowance 
made for the session. This important official is also 
recognised in other ways that are quite novel to states- 
men and politicians of the United States. He has his 
own private office in the Parliament building, as well as 
his own corps of clerks and messengers. The Speaker 
and members of the Senate have the same allowances 
as are made to the members of the Lower House; but 
they receive no extra allowances. 

The present Governor- General is His Royal Highness 
the Duke of Connaught and Stratheam, brother of the 
late King Edward of Great Britain and Ireland and 
Emperor of India, and therefore uncle of the reigning 
monarch, King George V. The Governor-General's 
Privy Council comprises the Premier and President of 



lOO THE COMING CANADA 

Council, the Secretary of State and thirteen other 
Ministers; their portfolios are Trade and Commerce, 
Justice and Attorney-General, Marine, Fisheries and 
Naval Service, Railways and Canals, Militia and Defence, 
Finance, Postmaster-General, Agriculture, Public Works, 
Interior, Customs, Inland Revenue and Mines, Labour. 
There is besides, a SoHcitor-General who is adviser to 
the Governor-General, but who is not in the Cabinet. 
Furthermore, there is a Department of External Affairs, 
whose head is likewise not a Cabinet officer, which has 
charge of all Imperial and inter-colonial correspondence 
passing between Ottawa and Downing Street, a name 
which has come to connote the British administration. 

It must seem to the American publicist that there is 
needless differentiation in this multiplicity of Cabinet 
officials. I fear the alleged British fondness for red- 
tape and its tendency to circumlocution assert them- 
selves in the composition of the Governor- General's 
Privy Council. Just why the functions of the Depart- 
ments of Trade and Commerce, Fisheries and Marine 
Service; or those of Railways and Canals, and Public 
Works; or those of Finance, Customs, and Inland 
Revenue and Mines, should not be consolidated into 
three offices, it is not easy to see. 

Each of the nine existing provinces has its own separate 
parliament and administration, at the head of which is a 
Lieutenant-Governor appointed by the Governor- General. 
The provinces have full powers to regulate their own local 
affairs and to dispose of their own revenues, provided 
always that there shall be no interference with the action 
and policy of the central Dominion Government. 




Hopewell Rocks, N. B. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA lOI 

Quebec has two Chambers, a Legislative Council and 
a Legislative Assembly, and a responsible Ministry. 
Nova Scotia has the same. The other provinces have 
but one Legislative Assembly, and a responsible Ministry. 
All readers are probably familiar to a certain extent with 
the working of such a government as that of Great 
Britain and other States wherein there is a ''responsible 
ministry." Such readers may have noted that when the 
Cabinet of such a country is defeated by the legislature 
in the vote upon a bill which it has introduced, the 
Cabinet resigns en bloc, and somebody from the Opposi- 
tion is called upon to form a new Cabinet. It is doubtful, 
however, if all comprehend just why this is so, and what 
a "responsible ministry" is: the responsibility is to the 
State not to the ruler. In such a nation, or state, or 
province, the official head, be he king, president, gover- 
nor-general or Heutenant-governor, is assumed to be 
without poHtical affiliation. Furthermore, he is entirely 
relieved of all responsibility for the actual legislation. 
When a general election has declared the wish of a 
majority of the electors, the head of the State calls upon 
the leader of the party in the majority to form a Cabinet, 
and it is assumed that the head of the State will approve 
of the selection of individual members, no matter how 
distasteful to his personal views may be the poHtical 
opinions of the majority: as an example, refer to Queen 
Victoria and Mr. Gladstone. This being done and (if 
provided for by constitution or according to custom) 
the Cabinet being confirmed by the legislature, the head 
of the State is personally irresponsible for all legislation. 
Taking a concrete example: ''as now interpreted, the 



I02 THE COMING CANADA 

leading principles of the British constitution are the 
personal irresponsibility of the sovereign, the responsi- 
bility of ministers [Cabinet officers], and the unquestioned 
and controlling power of parliament." If the ministry 
fails to receive the support of the national legislature, 
its power is at an end and it must resign. This rule of 
a responsible ministry holds good in Canada, from the 
Dominion Government at Ottawa to every province 
which is politically and independently organised. It 
even exercises surprising influence in smaller political 
divisions and in municipalities. 

The North West Territories, comprising all the regions 
formerly known as Rupert's Land; and the North 
Western Territory, excepting the provinces of Manitoba, 
Saskatchewan, and Alberta; the district of Keewatin; * 
and the North West Territory, are governed by a com- 
missioner and council of four appointed by the Governor- 
General, by and with the consent and approval of his 
Privy Council at Ottawa. The Territory of Yukon is 
governed by a Commissioner and an executive council 
of ten members, elected by the people. In the Domin- 
ion, the appointments made by the Governor- General 
are not submitted to the Senate for confirmation, as 
would be the case with corresponding Presidential ap- 
pointments in the United States. The Governor-Gen- 
eral's appointments may, however, be reviewed by the 
King and his Privy Council, and they may be thus 
revoked; but there are few (if any) instances of this 
action. 

There is a Supreme Court at Ottawa having appellate, 

* Keewatin and Ungava have disappeared. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 103 

civil, and criminal jurisdiction in and throughout Canada. 
There is an Exchequer Court, which is also a colonial 
court of admiralty, exercising powers as provided for 
in the Imperial ''Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act, 
1890." There is a Superior Court in each province; 
County Courts, with Hmited jurisdiction, in most of 
the provinces; some of the judges of these courts are 
appointed by the Governor- General; the minor ones 
by the Dominion parliament. The latter, even, cannot 
be removed unless by impeachment before the parlia- 
ment. This involves an elaborate process which has 
not yet been attempted, although it has been threatened 
more than once. Police Magistrates and Justices of 
the Peace are appointed by the governor of the province. 
The dispensing of justice in the Dominion is marked by 
a promptness which might well be emulated in her 
southern neighbour. Mr. Albert J. Beveridge — for- 
merly U. S. Senator from Indiana, in 1910-11 prepared 
a series of articles about "Our Northern Neighbors" 
for The Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia, in which 
he discussed, as a competent jurist, the methods fol- 
lowed by the Canadian Courts in such important matters 
as controlling trusts, etc. Those articles were most 
instructive and illuminating. 

To Canada's credit it may truthfully and cheerfully 
be said that the law is effectively, promptly, and im- 
partially administered throughout the entire Domin- 
ion. It would be, I think, impossible for the most 
searching investigation to reveal a state of affairs in the 
courts of Canada, such as has seemed to justify the 
attacks upon the bench in the United States of America 



I04 THE COMING CANADA 

which have appeared in some of the magazines of the 
latter country within the past year or two. 

In consequence there is, even in the remotest mining 
camps of the Yukon Territory or among the rough 
lumbermen of other regions, less turbulence than is 
often reported from similar districts in Australia or the 
United States. A concrete comparison might be drawn 
between conditions in the mining camps of the Yukon 
Territory and those in Alaska, which would be not at 
all unfavourable to Canada. In the distant western 
and northwestern portions of the Dominion, great credit 
for general order, security of life and property, and the 
prompt arrest, conviction, and punishment of criminals 
is due to the North Western Moimted Police, also called 
''The Riders of the Plains," who are entitled to more 
consideration than the limitation of space puts upon 
me. 

This is an efficient body of picked men, preference being 
given to those who have had some miHtary training, 
although this is not considered absolutely essential. 
But strong, healthy, resourceful, tactful, courageous, 
and good horsemen they must be. The full force com- 
prises 700 men and officers, under the control of the 
Dominion government. They are well paid and are 
given such effective support that the esprit de corps is 
very high. 

Roughly speaking, they patrol the entire territory 
north and west of Ontario and Quebec provinces 
(although they are not, I believe, supposed to go into 
Ungava and Labrador). That is from Hudson Bay to 
the Rocky Mountains and including all of Yukon Terri- 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA I05 

tory, and from the United States boundary all the way to 
the northern limits of the Dominion in Arctic lands. 
This great bailiwick, not very much smaller than the 
entire area of the United States, is apportioned — for 
police service — into twelve divisions with a superin- 
tendent for each. These divisions are further subdivided 
into one hundred and fifty smaller administrative 
districts, in charge of lieutenants or sergeants, or it 
may be just a corporal. 

The functions of these Mounted Police are most 
varied. Not only are they first and foremost preservers 
of the peace and effective executors of justice, but they 
are also census officers, registrars, rural postmen, etc.; 
they may be called upon to record a birth, or register a 
marriage, or certify a death, wherever there happens 
to be no competent civil official. Many an outpost of 
civilisation would be entirely without means of com- 
municating with the rest of the world, were it not for 
the occasional visit of a Mounted Policeman. One 
must know from actual experience of the winter in 
Canada's northwest how to appreciate what such a 
visit sometimes means; and at that season the visiting 
poKceman is not mounted. 

Versatile they are, of course: expert horsemen, crack 
shots, good on snowshoes, skilful with a paddle and in 
managing a canoe, in fact handy at everything. Besides 
all these things, they are constantly engaged in breaking 
out new trails, in recording experiences and observations 
which are valuable or suggestive to scientists in deter- 
mining the agricultural, grazing, mineral, lumber value 
of new territory. To their efforts is due much of the 



Io6 THE COMING CANADA 

credit for pushing back the line which had previously 
marked off the "unexplored'' regions of the north. An 
entire volume might be filled with accounts of the 
bravery and self-sacrifice of these men. 

As the traveller by train sees an occasional Mounted 
Policeman at a station, he may often be inclined to mis- 
judge their *^ smart" appearance as indicative of fop- 
pishness which strives to imitate the gorgeousness and 
manner of the regular army. But let a call come to arrest 
a drunken bully who is threatening to ''paint the town 
red" and shoot at sight; or let it be a summons to head 
off a band of turbulent Indians, or to fight a prairie fire, 
or any one of a hundred other things which demand 
quick judgment, prompt action and entire forgetfulness 
of self, and the seeming fop is instantly metamorphosed 
into a vigorous, self-rehant, absolutely fearless upholder 
of the peace, or a kind-hearted rescuer of the suffering. 

After the transfer of French control in 1759 or 1763, 
the British Government maintained garrisons at Quebec 
and Halifax for a time, as well as smaller contingents at 
a number of posts. Still later, Esquimault, Vancouver 
Island, British Columbia, was made a large and impor- 
tant naval base and dockyard. Quebec was the first of 
these to be transferred to the confederation: more 
recently, 1905, HaKfax and Esquimault were also handed 
over to the Dominion's care. 

The sovereign of the British Empire is nominally 
commander-in-chief of all the military and naval forces 
of Canada; but the actual control rests entirely with the 
federal parliament. Until 1903, the miUtary forces of the 
Dominion were commanded by a British regular army 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA I07 

officer; but in that year the service was reorganised and 
localised, the command being given to a military council, 
of which the Minister of Militia and Defence became 
president. 

When Halifax and Esquimault were transferred to 
the Dominion, it became necessary to increase the 
mihtia by about 5000 men, in order to provide the neces- 
sary garrisons at the three important strategic points 
and the few forts that are still maintained. On a peace 
footing, however, the Canadian army is not a great 
burden on the finances, being only about 6000 all told, 
including the three principal branches, infantry, artillery, 
and cavalry. The former one thousand were mostly 
commissioned and non-commissioned officers of the 
regular (British) army who were occupied as instructors 
of the militia. 

All male citizens between the ages of eighteen and 
sixty are nominally enrolled for mihtia duty, and may 
be called to the colours at once should occasion demand. 
It may be noted that the maximum age indicates the 
conviction that a man retains his vigour longer in 
Canada than he is assumed to do in some other countries. 
The actual militia, regularly drilled and given practical 
training in camp and the Uke, comprises about 45,000, 
officers and men; all of whom are volunteers. The 
service is a popular one and not seriously engrossing. 
The government has no difficulty in keeping the ranks 
of the militia companies ffiled. 

This mihtia cannot be called upon for active duty 
outside the Dominion; but we know that there have 
been several occasions when special corps have volun- 



I08 THE COMING CANADA 

teered for foreign service; the expense attending this 
has usually been borne by patriotic citizens. In 1883, 
a company of Canadian voyageurs offered themselves for 
service in Lord Wolseley's Nile expedition. These men 
were of the greatest assistance in helping the army to 
pass the Rapids, as well as in other ways because of 
their general handiness; a characteristic which is 
declared to be not marked in the average ''Tommy 
Atkins." Again, during the South African War, 1902-4, 
several contingents of Canadian troops were enlisted 
and gladly accepted by the Imperial War Office. These 
troops gave an excellent account of themselves, and 
their action, taken in connection with the manner in 
which the heavy expense of their equipment and main- 
tenance was provided for, as well as the expressions of 
sentiment by the French-Canadian (Sir Wilfred Laurier) 
who was then Premier and who spoke for all his fellows, 
went a long way towards strengthening the bonds which 
unite the Dominion to the Empire. 

After the close of the South African War, another 
thorough reorganisation of the militia took place, and it 
is now considered to be in excellent condition both as to 
efficiency and popularity. The Royal Military College 
at Kingston is well attended and admirably conducted. 
Each year, a certain number of the successful graduates 
are given commissions in the Imperial army of Great 
Britain. Nearly all the schools in cities of size, as well 
as some of those in smaller places, have their cadet corps, 
neatly uniformed, carefully drilled by competent militia 
officers, and supplied with arms and ammunition, either 
by the central or the local government. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA IO9 

The Dominion government maintains an arsenal and 
factories for the manufacture of rifles, small arms, and 
ammunition at Quebec. The arsenal is within what is 
popularly known as ''The Citadel;" but for a time the 
other useful establishments, as well as a rifle-range that 
was constantly in use, were allowed to encroach upon 
what all loyal Canadians consider to be the sacred Plains 
of Abraham; but this profanation has been stopped, 
and the most hallowed portion, the eastern end where 
stand the monuments, on the actual battlefield, is now 
preserved as a public park. 

There is no State Church in the Dominion; although 
in the Province of Quebec certain religious privileges 
have been permitted to the Roman CathoHcs ever since 
the conquest in 1759, and these have brought about 
conditions which seem to suggest an estabHshed church. 
The Church of England has two archbishops (Rupert's 
Land: archbishop, metropoHtan, and primate of all 
Canada; and Ontario: archbishop and metropolitan), 
nineteen or twenty bishoprics, and something over 1000 
clergy. The Roman Catholic Church has one cardinal, 
seven archbishops, 23 bishops, and about 1500 clergy. 
The Presbyterian Church has about 1400 ministers, and 
maintains some 2500 churches and stations; the Metho- 
dists 1950; and the Baptists 500. Besides the older 
divisions of the Christian Church, there are almost 
innumerable sects. The utmost freedom is permitted, 
and Russian dissenters are made to feel as much at home 
as are the strictest churchmen. 



CHAPTER VIII 
TEE WEALTH OF CANADA 

BEGINNING in the extreme eastern part of the 
Dominion, with Nova Scotia, I purpose giving a 
very little attention to Canada's mineral wealth, because 
it seems to me that this is not now such an important 
factor as is that other which is to be taken from the 
surface of the ground. In agricultural products, live 
stock, and kindred industries, I am convinced, the 
greatness of The Coming Canada is to consist, and that 
conviction is strengthened by what I have seen and heard 
during another visit to the Dominion which I have 
recently made. 

It is not because I do not appreciate fully Canada's 
mineral wealth, but because I believe more in something 
else. With the natural products of the ground, I shall 
class the marine products in this hasty and general pre- 
liminary sketch. All who have enjoyed the dehght of 
coasting along the shores of Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 
wick, Prince Edward Island, Anticosti, eastern Quebec, 
and even the bleak Labrador, as well as other parts of 
Canada's Httoral, Atlantic or Pacific, have been impressed 
with the economic and financial importance of the 
fisheries; both those of the deeper seas and those of 
the lobstermen in the bays and bights of the east. Or, 
jumping across the continent, the salmon fisheries of 



II 



THE WEALTH OF CANADA III 

British Columbia have interested every visitor. The 
fishing industries bring to the people of the Dominion 
many milUons of dollars every year. Of the river and 
lake fishing, I shall speak in another^place. 

In Nova Scotia there are great coalfields, and Sydney, 
Cape Breton, is one of the most important coal-shipping 
ports on the Atlantic coast. Twenty milHon dollars a 
year is said to be the amount which this one industry 
represents. Naturally, since the other required raw 
material, iron ore, is at hand, this Httle town is also a 
producer of iron and steel; the place has aptly been 
called "A transatlantic Birmingham" ; and indeed, it 
is not quite so absurd as it sounds to liken the com- 
paratively new, Kttle Nova Scotia town of a few thou- 
sand population, with the long estabhshed Midland city 
of half a milKon. The rest of this Acadian region is 
rather poorly off in minerals. The Cape Breton coal 
seams re-appear as far north as the St. Lawrence River. 
The coal seams of New Brunswick are thin and unim- 
portant. There are some fairly productive veins of 
quartz bearing precious metals. The southern part 
of Quebec province is placed by geologists in the Acadian 
region; in that part are some copper and asbestos 
properties of value. 

Geologists consider the Dominion as divided into five 
areas. One has been barely alluded to; but there is 
Httle more to say. The next is an enormous territory, 
technically designated as the Archaean protaxis. Within 
its boundaries there must be more than two milHon 
square miles. In the east it embraces Labrador, 
Ungava, and most of Quebec province; its southern 



112 THE COMING CANADA 

boundary may be defined by a line including the northern 
part of Ontario province ; while west its limits run from 
the Lake of the Woods northwesterly to the Arctic 
Ocean near the mouth of the Mackenzie River. What 
the northern limit is, it would be venturesome to say; it 
certainly includes many of those bleak, ice-bound islands 
which intervene between the mainland of the North 
American continent and the North Pole. Hudson Bay 
is at about the centre of this gigantic V; but even on 
the latest maps which the Dominion Government has 
prepared, giving data to the end of 191 1, vast tracts are 
yet branded as unexplored, or as barren. Much of the 
foundation is Lauren tian gneiss and granite; but there 
are other rocks which bear deposits of most of the im- 
portant minerals; principally iron, nickel, silver, copper. 

If Ontario has been almost deforested — and the 
lumbermen long since passed into the newly created 
northern section — there yet remains in the cobalt 
mines of the province a source of great wealth which is 
being realised very rapidly. From those silver-bearing 
ores something like forty million dollars' worth of metal 
have been extracted. The range of these ores has 
recently been demonstrated to be much wider than it 
was supposed to be. The nickel mines of Ontario are 
extremely valuable; so much so indeed that those at 
Sudbury are said to produce a large proportion of the 
whole world's output. Of the 87 million dollars which 
all Canadian mines produced in 1909, Ontario's cobalt- 
silver and nickel mines represented nearly thirty millions. 

The next geological area, the Interior Central Plain, 
would not naturally be considered of importance for its 



THE WEALTH OF CANADA II3 

minerals. There is some coal and lignite, and as one 
draws towards the Rocky Moimtains, near Medicine 
Hat, a station on the Canadian Pacific Railway in Alberta 
province, for example, natural gas-wells have been bored 
and the gas put to use as fuel. In certain places, the 
presence of 'Har-sands" indicates that petroleum exists, 
but these "prospects" have not yet been followed 
up. In the northern part of Alberta natural gas has 
been found and there must be a good deal of this 
natural asset all along the eastern foothills of the Rocky 
Mountains. 

In the western mountain region. The Cordilleran 
Belt, as it is technically called, large fields of coal, both 
bituminous and semi-anthracite, have been opened. 
The mines supply fuel for the different railways, for the 
settlers along the lines, and for the cities and towns 
farther to the east. The best coal, down to the present 
time, is found on the Pacific slope. From the mines of 
that region comes the coking coal which supplies fuel 
for the famous Kootenay district in extreme southern 
British Columbia, and to the mines and smelters of 
Montana. 

The Selkirk Mountains and the Gold Range are two 
short chains parallel to the main Rockies, in southeastern 
British Columbia. In these two ranges are, at present, 
the most important gold, silver, copper, and lead mines 
of the Dominion; and their output has placed British 
Columbia far in the lead of all other provinces as a 
producer of the precious and useful metals. 

In the early days of the province's history, the placer 
mines along the Columbia and Fraser Rivers, in southern 



114 THE COMING CANADA 

British Columbia, and in the lower parts of the Yukon 
Territory in the north, attracted much attention; but 
in these districts the precious metals are now almost 
entirely mined from lodes and reduced by smelting. The 
placer mines of the Klondike, still farther north, have 
furnished many million dollars' worth of gold, and will 
doubtless continue to be productive for some time to 
come. 

The mineral wealth of the Canadian Rockies has not 
yet been determined. Geological and mineralogical 
surveys are being made yearly; but this research into 
the material wealth of the Dominion is being directed 
more towards the soil in its various phases. Gold mines, 
working either on ledges or by hydraulic washing, are 
to be seen along many river bottoms. From them gold 
to the value of hundreds of million dollars has been taken. 
Who will dare to guess at the millions upon millions more 
that may be extracted? Yet, again, who will tell just 
what each dollar's worth of gold has cost? Economically, 
morally, physically, socially — gold mining is more 
costly than wheat growing! 

Other parts of British Columbia are so rich in metals 
that one writer asserts, "corundum and nickel seem to 
be the only mineral products that are not found in this 
highly metalliferous region." Several towns in this 
province have gained a reputation that is world-wide 
because of the great value of their metal output, precious 
or merely useful ; and the plants of some include smelters 
that are among ''the largest and most complete of their 
kind in the whole world!" All the British Columbian 
littoral as well as the adjacent islands seems to be rich 



THE WEALTH OF CANADA II5 

in minerals, from the prosaic coal to the glittering gold. 
The total output of the mines has reached hundreds of 
millions of dollars in value. Besides great wealth in 
the ground, this Pacific province has enormous wealth 
above ground, for there is the greatest compact area of 
merchantable timber in North America. But it is not 
only in mines and lumber that the extreme western 
section of the Dominion possesses great wealth; there 
are other sources which are really more satisfactory and, 
in the long run, more remunerative to labour and to the 
State: of these I shall speak presently. 

We may say of the Cordillera belt, as a whole, that 
within its borders are most of the best coal mines in 
Canada; that there are also immense deposits of the 
precious and some of the useful metals, for iron-ore of 
a good quality and readily mined has not yet been found. 
But our knowledge of this great Cordilleran belt is still 
anything but complete. It extends from the United 
States boundary far into the Arctic regions, and from 
the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific 
Ocean. Explorations are being prosecuted, and it is 
not unreasonable to expect that this great area will 
prove to be ''the counterpart of the great mining 
region of the Cordillera in the United States to the 
South." 

If confirmation were demanded for the statement 
that the government of the Dominion of Canada looks 
more favourably upon the development of those resources 
which depend upon the soil, rather than upon the ex- 
ploitation of mineral wealth, it is to be had in the suc- 
cessful efforts which have been made to increase the 



Il6 THE COMING CANADA 

population and to extend the area under cultivation in 
the great Interior Central Plain. 

Less than forty years ago, our school atlases showed 
British North America to be practically a complete blank 
from the Great Lakes to the Pacific, from the Inter- 
national boundary northward indefinitely. Prior to 
1858, the Hudson's Bay Company had a trading-post 
where Victoria on Vancouver Island, B. C, now stands. 
The city was incorporated in 1862. In 1886 its popula- 
tion was 14,000, and this included Chinese and a large 
number of Indians; now there are 50,000 inhabitants. 
In 1870, Winnipeg began its existence as a village. Prior 
to that date there had been at least five fur-traders' 
"forts" on sites that are now within the city's limits. 
In 1873, it was incorporated as a city, and in 1881 the 
population was 7985, now it is over 200,000. Scarcely 
another one of the innumerable, flourishing cities and 
towns were in existence forty years ago. 

In the northern sections of this great area, it was the 
dotted line which confesses geographical ignorance that 
map-makers were compelled to use. Here and there, 
at wide intervals, "forts" were marked. These denoted 
trading stations of the Hudson's Bay Company, or — 
very rarely — posts where small garrisons were main- 
tained for the purpose of keeping a watch on the Indians 
and checking their disposition to go on the war-path. 
Now, the maps which the Dominion Government issues 
to show the land that is available for homestead pre- 
emption in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta 
provinces, indicate that agricultural and stock-raising 
settlers in great numbers have availed themselves of the 



THE WEALTH OF CANADA II7 

opportunity to secure homes upon the favourable terms 
that are granted. 

This, however, is not at all astonishing, because the 
land is good, the climate healthy, even if the winters are 
rigorous, the facilities of access are satisfactory and are 
being rapidly extended, and the advantages of schools 
and social intercourse are admirable. These, and other 
phases of hfe in those western provinces, will be con- 
sidered more fully in the chapter, "The Lure of Canada." 

What is amazing, and it is something which strongly 
emphasises the importance of agriculture as the leading 
factor of Canada's wealth, is the story told by a map 
of the Dominion to show points far to the north of what 
was for a long time considered the limit of the grain belt, 
where wheat has been grown. The most northern of 
these points is Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie River 
in the North West Territories, lat. 61° 8'. Here barley 
always ripens and wheat is sure to mature four seasons 
out of five. Melons, if started under glass, ripen well 
and frost seldom does them much damage. One visitor * 
wrote: ''While at this post we enjoyed the fine potatoes, 
carrots, parsnips, cabbage, and peas grown in the Com- 
pany's garden. They were as large and as fine flavoured 
as the best in any part of the country. Barley is yearly 
grown here and it may be said successfully, for any fail- 
ures have been due to drought or too much rain of tener 
than frost. Wheat has been tried several times, often 
successfully, but as it cannot be utilised except through 
grinding with a handmill, it is not considered desirable 
to grow much of it." 

* William Ogilive, In Northern Wilds. 



Il8 THE COMING CANADA 

At Fort Providence, on the same Mackenzie River, 
but near its exit from the Great Slave Lake, lat. 6i° 4', 
on July 15th, 1906, an inspector reported ''the garden 
contained peas fit for use, potatoes in flower, tomatoes, 
rhubarb, beets, cabbages, onions. Besides vegetables, 
there were cultivated, flowers and fruits, such as red 
currants, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries, and 
sackaloons. But most surprising of all was a small field 
of wheat in the milk, the grain being fully formed. This 
was stated to have been sown on May 20th, and harvested 
before July 28th, slightly over two months from sowing.'^ 

In 1905, in the vicinity of Fort Vermilion, on Peace 
River, northern Alberta, lat. 58° 4', 25,000 bushels of 
wheat were raised. There is a modern equipment (roller 
process), electric-lighted flour-mill at this place. At 
that time the capacity of the mill was 35 barrels per day; 
but the wheat crop in the neighbourhood has been so 
much increased, and the promise of permanency is so 
good, that this mill has been enlarged and now its 
capacity is 125 barrels of flour a day. The quality of 
this flour is declared to be fully equal to that of any 
produced in other parts of the world. 

There are a number of other places north of the 54th 
parallel of latitude, where wheat has been successfully 
raised, while barley and oats actually thrive. Fruits 
and vegetables, such as have been already mentioned, 
are grown at nearly all of these far northern posts. 
Experiments were made during the summer of last year 
(191 2) at some stations even farther north than Fort 
Simpson. The results of these tests are not available 
at the time of writing; but officials of the departments. 



THE WEALTH OF CANADA II9 

Ottawa, expressed themselves with pleasing confidence. 
What has been said of Siberia * of the power of the sun 
during eighteen to twenty hours of cloudless days that 
are the rule during the short summer, applies with equal 
force to Canada. 

For the purpose of visual comparison, an outline of 
the Russian-Siberian Government of Tobolsk has been 
superimposed upon this map in its correct position as 
to latitude. Its southern point reaches down nearly to 
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Province: its northern limit, 
nearly 70°, corresponds to the southern portion of Vic- 
toria Island, Wollaston Land, in the Arctic sea. In 
1907, Tobolsk produced 11,779,000 bushels of wheat, 
4,344,000 bushels rye, 829,000 bushels barley, 13,818,000 
bushels oats. In 1901 there were nearly four million 
head of hve stock, and from the Kazan district, in the 
extreme southwest along the Hne of the Trans-Siberian 
Railway, nearly twenty million pounds of butter were 
shipped, most of it being sold in the markets of Great 
Britain. Now, the cultivated sections of Tobolsk are 
all well to the south of the 58th parallel of North lati- 
tude, and the northern boundary of Saskatchewan, 
Alberta, and British Columbia is the 60th parallel. The 
arable and grazing lands of the Siberian province are 
considered to extend not much to the north of the town 
of Tobolsk, 58° 20' N., and then only in exceptional 
places. Whereas, it is being demonstrated more and 
more each year that the North West Territories of 
Canada can successfully produce grain north of the 60th 
parallel. 

* See Russia in Europe and Asia. 



I20 THE COMING CANADA 

In the provinces of Manitoba (its area was much in- 
creased towards the north by the Boundaries Extension 
Act of 191 2), Saskatchewan, and Alberta, the area under 
grain cultivation in 1909 was 11,960,000 acres; the 
wheat area was 6,878,000 acres, and the total wheat 
produced was 147,000,000 bushels. All of these figures 
must be greatly added to for the current year, 191 2. 
In this year it is estimated that the grain acreage in 
those three provinces alone was 15,728,900 acres; the 
area under wheat cultivation was 8,951,800 acres; the 
wheat crop 189,585,400 bushels. The total wheat crop 
for the whole Dominion was estimated at 216,498,000 
bushels, because Ontario, Quebec, and the maritime 
provinces all contribute an appreciable quantity. 

That the interest, which newly arrived settlers who 
contemplate engaging in occupations that are connected 
with the cultivation of the soil or stock raising, is great 
and increasing as the influx of new-comers grows, is 
shown by the fact that a report upon lands in north- 
western Saskatchewan Province, of investigations made 
there in 1908, was in such demand that the large issue, 
printed for public information and gratuitous distribu- 
tion, was speedily exhausted. This report was reprinted 
in 19 10, and with it was incorporated another similar 
report of investigations made in 1909. Copies of this 
double report are not now easily procurable because 
the demand for them has been so great. 

They deal with those portions of Saskatchewan and 
Alberta Provinces north of the surveyed area, up to ^' the 
Clearwater River [say lat. 55° N.], and extending from 
Green Lake, the Beaver River, and connecting waters 



m 
o 

r 
> 

m 

n 




THE WEALTH OF CANADA 121 

as far north as Portage la Loche, on the east, to the 
Athabaska River, on the west." It should be explained 
that "surveyed area" means land which has been marked 
out by townships of thirty-six sections; each section 
being one mile square, and each section subdivided 
into quarter sections of i6o acres each. The town- 
ship is, therefore, six miles square; its lines run north 
and south, or east and west; and the system corre- 
sponds closely with the public lands surveys in the 
United States. 

The area, covered by the two reports which have been 
mentioned, is approximately thirty-four million acres, 
and the greater part of this enormous tract is shown to 
be admirably suited to mixed farming. Scattered over 
the map which accompanies the combined reports are 
such legends as, "prairie; very good soil," "rolling land; 
good soil," "barley, oats, and good gardens," "burnt 
over; good soil," "well timbered." There are abundant 
natural resources of timber, hay, fish, and game, which 
are of much value to intending immigrants. A good 
many of the early settlers have practically given up the 
cultivation of grain and devote their energies to cutting 
and curing hay, for which the local demand is so great 
as to ensure large profits. 

Results of actual operations in cattle raising are of a 
most encouraging nature. In Saskatchewan Province, 
as far north as about the 52nd parallel of latitude, there 
are large herds of cattle and good-sized droves of horses 
in a thriving condition. Similar reports are made from 
various other parts of this same region. 

The Dominion Department of Agriculture, through its 



122 THE COMING CANADA 

Bureau of Plant Industry and its Experimental Farms 
Branch, has made investigation of wild grasses growing 
in Siberia, Mongolia, and Northern Manchuria. Three 
varieties of yellow-flowered alfalfa, called also lucern, 
lucerne, and luzerne, were ''found growing and thriving 
in a wild state under conditions of climate much more 
severe, both as to cold in winter and snowfall, than are 
to be found in any part of Northwestern Canada as far 
north as there are any claims made as to probabiKties 
of settlement. It may therefore be considered reason- 
ably probable that whatever advantages alfalfa has over 
our native grass as fodder are assured for all habitable 
parts of our north country." 

A careful perusal of these two reports which have 
been mentioned certainly gives a very different idea 
of Canada's northern land than that which most people 
have hitherto had. A number of illustrations from 
photographs of actual fields, etc., tend to emphasise the 
astonishment that farming can be possible so nearly 
up to the Arctic Circle. One of the reproductions shows 
a field of oats at La Plonge Mission station, about 56° N. 
lat. A man, nearly six feet tall, stands among the 
stalks, the tops of which come to his chin. This is 
mentioned as an example of what has been actually 
done, and much other evidence of arable land in regions 
that were, but a few years ago, looked upon as desolate 
and practically uninhabitable, might be added. 

While grains are undoubtedly the main factor in 
Canada's agricultural wealth, there are other crops which 
are exceedingly profitable. Fruits of various kinds are 
one source of revenue which is already large and is 



THE WEALTH OF CANADA 123 

steadily expanding. Apple orchards are being set out 
farther and farther north each year, and the extreme 
limit at which this fruit can be advantageously grown 
has not been finally determined. 

London, Eng., now takes a large part of Nova Scotia's 
million barrels of apples. This is now considered an 
average crop for the province, with probabilities of 
material increase. In the St. Lawrence Valley, although 
apple-trees are fairly plentiful and fairly prolific even 
in the lower parts, among the habitants, it is not until 
one reaches the Lake Ontario region that the orchards 
become conspicuous. In the Niagara district, from the 
river to and around the western end of the lake, and 
spread out well towards the west, there are miles of 
thrifty peach and apple orchards, and acres upon acres 
of luxuriant vineyards. 

If the fruit orchards are found to be not continuous 
as the traveller passes across the great prairies from 
Winnipeg to the foot of the Rockies, it is not because 
fruit will not thrive there, but for the reason that the 
farmers have elected to concentrate their efforts upon 
growing grain or raising stock. But when once the 
southern Rocky Mountains region is entered — and one 
must deflect to the southward from the main line of the 
Canadian Pacific Railway, taking the new branch — 
orchards re-appear. 

The Okanagon Lake district is deservedly famous for 
its orchards. ^' Along the beautiful sheet of water lie 
the new fruit growing centres of Kelewna, Peachland, 
Summerland, and Penticton — musical names all. To 
be privileged to eat real apples from a British Columbia 



124 THE COMING CANADA 

orchard, or to pick real rosy-cheeked peaches from a 
Peachland tree, to see pear and plum trees laden to 
their limit, and flourishing amid their irrigation channels, 
is to be impressed with the fact that in this great timber 
and mining province of Canada fruit-growing is already 
an estabhshed industry, where you may pay up to 500 
dollars an acre for choice orchard lands." * 

In 1903 the experiment of shipping apples from British 
Columbia abroad was first tried as a commercial venture, 
although I know — from delightful personal experience 
— that the C. P. R. steamers have been bountifully 
suppHed with apples and other fruit for many years. 
Some were sent to Glasgow, carried well across the conti- 
nent and the Atlantic, and sold profitably. Some went 
to Australia, and some gained a gold medal at a London, 
Eng., exhibition. However, the home demand is not 
yet so over-supplied that orchardists need send their 
apples all over the world to find a market. 

There is one Canadian fruit that is peerless of its kind; 
only it must be eaten on its native heath to get all the 
dehght for the palate that it holds. This is the ''Mon- 
treal melon." Its appearance tends rather to dis- 
courage the American epicure who has for his ideal the 
rough, rusty little canteloupe, because the Montreal 
melon is somewhat suggestive of the poorer quality 
of muskmelon. But when once the gourmet listens to 
the praise of the waiter who places the half of one of 
these melons before him and tastes — he is a convert 
at once and a devotee forever after. It is a pity this 
fruit will not stand transportation when ripe, else would 

* Frank Yeigh, Through the Heart of Canada. 



THE WEALTH OF CANADA I25 

its sale in cities of the United States add many a dollar 
each year to Canada's wealth. 

Of the Dominion's wealth in timber and merchantable 
lumber, there are abundant evidences on every hand. 
At the docks of Montreal and all river ports where 
deepwater craft can load, the immense piles of sawn 
lumber, vanishing by day to be replaced by others in 
the night, speak for themselves. It is true that each 
year adds a Httle to the cost of producing this lumber, 
because the lumbermen must go a little farther away 
for the logs, and in many places the deforestation has 
been shamelessly complete. 

Statisticians claim to have fixed the limit of time for 
the best Canadian white pine to be procurable, unless 
the government gives great attention to conservation 
and reforestation. Officials have taken these matters 
well in hand and the Forestry Bureau of the Interior 
Department is now organised and vested with authority 
to preserve and renew. 

It seems hardly necessary to dwell at any length upon 
the Dominion's wealth in fur-bearing animals. It is 
still great, but not comparable with what it was in the 
halcyon days of les voyageurs et les coureurs des hois. That 
there is profit in the fur business, and revenue for the 
government, are clearly indicated by the competition 
which private firms and individuals are now waging 
with the Hudson's Bay Company. 

There is Httle danger that the profit-yielding shore 
and deep-sea fisheries will greatly decrease; because of 
Nature's generosity in replenishing the supply. His- 
torically, the beginnings and growth of the earliest 



126 THE COMING CANADA 

trading companies of New France — those that had to 
do, first with the cod-fishing on the Newfoundland 
Banks, and later with the fur-trade — are subjects of 
great interest, and the stories are filled with incidents 
that are distinctly thrilling.* The Coming Canada has 
little to fear for its future wealth, if the present intelli- 
gence in developing now displayed is maintained, and 
the prosecution watched by competent officials. 

* H. P. Biggar. The Early Trading Companies of New France, 



i 

4 



CHAPTER IX 
PHYSICAL CANADA 

THE eastern three-fourths of the Dominion, from 
Labrador in the northeast to Nova Scotia in the 
southeast, and westward until the great central plains 
have been crossed, have no mountains of very great 
altitude. I should, perhaps, say "excepting the extreme 
northern part of Labrador." But our knowledge of 
that peninsula is still far from satisfactory. Indeed, I 
do not hesitate to say that beyond a smattering of 
information along the coast, we do not know anything 
at all about that region. It may be — as has been 
asserted — that there are peaks which rise to a height 
of from 7000 to 8000 feet above sea-level; but from the 
best information I could gather, I am rather inclined to 
doubt it. 

In the extreme southeastern section of Canada, the 
highest peak is Bald Mountain, in New Brunswick, 
2460 feet. Besides this there are rarely any hills which 
attain to 3000 feet above the sea. The Shicksock moun- 
tains of the Gaspe peninsula attain to 3000 feet in certain 
peaks. 

If it does not tower to great heights, yet the Lauren- 
tian plateau, along Georgian Bay, the upper end of Lake 
Huron, and the whole of the north shore of Lake Superior, 
is extremely interesting to the geologist, since it is con- 



128 THE COMING CANADA 

sidered to represent the oldest rock formation of the 
globe. In this aspect of the relative ages of the two 
hemispheres, it is manifestly a misnomer to call America 
"the New World." This hard, close-grained Lauren- 
tian rock presented a very serious problem to the engi- 
neers who built the first trans-continental railway in 
Canada, the Canadian Pacific. It was a most difficult 
matter to cut the road-bed; because the charges of 
explosives, no matter how carefully set and tamped, blew 
straight out of the drill-holes as from a gim-barrel, 
without shattering the adamantine rock at all. It was 
only when heavy charges of nitro-glycerine were used 
that the work was successfully accomplished. When I 
passed around the southern end of Lake Baikal, Siberia, 
by the Trans-Siberian Railway, I was reminded con- 
stantly of this section of the Canadian Pacific. Con- 
ditions were singularly parallel in both places. The 
almost imperative necessity for double-tracking the 
Canadian line, eastward from Port Arthur, in order to 
facilitate the getting of the yearly increasing grain-crop 
of the North West to market, when navigation on the 
Great Lakes is closed, is a task from which the engineers 
of the Canadian Pacific naturally shrink: but it has got 
to be faced and accomplished. 

It is not surprising that this Laurentian belt for a long 
time presented a serious obstacle to the development 
of regions to the west thereof; and it was many years 
before settlements began to spread northward from the 
one available thoroughfare. But now that it is found 
that regions which had been considered too remote, too 
unsuited to husbandry, and too inhospitable for perma- 



PHYSICAL CANADA I29 

nent settlements are really desirable in many ways, the 
newer railway lines, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the 
National Trans-continental, and doubtless others have 
been or will be located north of the Laurentian belt. 
Construction will be a much easier problem than was 
that which faced the Canadian Pacific engineers. 

When the Rocky Mountains are reached, there is 
presented to the visitor's eyes a wealth of mountain 
scenery that is with difiiculty matched in any other 
part of the world. From the International Boundary 
along the main range away up to Mackenzie Bay, in the 
extreme north of Yukon Territory, above the Arctic 
Circle, and in the whole of British Columbia, including 
the islands off the coast, there is ''a world of mountains." 
There are, besides the parent range, the subordinate 
chains, the Selkirks, the Coast, the Cascades, and spurs 
that bear local names. In the first are peaks such as 
Sir Donald, over 10,000 feet; and glaciers such as the 
lUicillewait. Here is a Hst of names of mountain peaks 
in the Canadian Rockies, any one of which will give all 
that alpinists can ask in the way of difiiculties to sur- 
mount, and a reward that thrills : Aberdeen, Assiniboine, 
Baker, Cathedral Spires, Cougar, Logan, Robson, St. 
Elias, Temple, Vice-President, Victoria. But I wish 
to give a full chapter, later on, to this subject of the 
Canadian Rockies. 

Canada is most bountifully suppHed with lakes and 
rivers; taken together, these afford facilities for inland 
navigation and intercommunication that are almost 
unique. Most of the lakes have outlets, and therefore 
their waters are fresh; but in the southern part of 



130 THE COMING CANADA 

Saskatchewan Province is one of the very excessively 
dry regions; here there are some lakes which are not 
drained. The water is strongly alkaline and the shores 
of these land-locked lakes are heavily incrusted with 
mineral deposits. ''It is interesting to find marine 
plants, such as the samphire, growing on their shores a 
thousand miles from the sea and more than a thousand 
feet above it." In many places the water, which settles 
in one basin to form a small lake, overflows and meanders 
down the next lower level until again it settles into 
another lake. There is not always a weU-defijied channel. 
As a consequence, the river systems are frequently 
complex and tortuous. The successive links between the 
lakes have been given different names by the Indians 
or the European discoverers, and this adds to confusion. 

The Great Lakes, with the St. Lawrence River, are 
deferred to another chapter. A glance at the map shows 
that Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, northern Saskatchewan 
and Alberta, and the whole of the North West Territories, 
are honeycombed with lakes. Indeed the low and 
generally level character of the land, which make these 
lakes and rivers inevitable, is one of the embarrass- 
ments that confront the Dominion Government. The 
waterlogged land is difScult to drain, and yet the soil 
itself is admirably suited to husbandry and stock-raising. 

In the Canadian folk-lore, there is hardly a lake, from 
St. John, in eastern Quebec, to the Great Bear, in the 
North West Territories and crossed by the Arctic Circle, 
that has not figured in one or more of these stories. 
There are besides these many historical tales which 
relate the hardships borne by coureurs des hois or mission- 



PHYSICAL CANADA 131 

aries in their efforts to conquer the wilderness or uplift 
the savage inhabitants: all are pathetic; many are 
tragic. 

I cannot imagine a more tempting summer expedition 
for strong young men who love to get back for a while 
to Nature now and then, than to start from Winnipeg, 
Manitoba, go by canoe the full length of Lake Winnipeg, 
because its shores give the most entrancing spots for a 
camp; then make their way by the smaller lakes and 
charming connecting streams, with here and there a 
portage that adds spice to Hfe, to Nelson River, and 
down that stream to its mouth in Hudson Bay. Once 
there, I should not be happy unless I could take a good 
look at the two shores of the bay. For those who Hke 
to combine exploration with recreation, there are excellent 
opportunities, especially on the eastern side of the bay, 
north of the Hudson's Bay Company's post at the mouth 
of Great Whale River. Some way of getting round the 
Ungava peninsula and Labrador will present itself; and 
at the end of the summer, I should return to dull civi- 
lisation by way of Newfoundland. 

But the Canadian lakes are not all in the low country: 
some of them are so high up in the Rocky Mountains 
that they are truly amongst the clouds. Travellers by 
the Canadian Pacific Railway get glimpses of some of 
the mountain lakes while comfortably seated in a palace- 
car, or while eating a most delicious breakfast in a dining- 
car as it runs along the shore of Kootenay or Sicamous 
lake; and it is not unlikely one item of the meal will be 
fresh fish taken just a few minutes before from one of 
those lakes. I have many times had that tantalising 



132 THE COMING CANADA 

pleasure; and always there has been a fierce protest that 
the demands of profession or business prevented my 
leaving the sybaritish luxury of the train that I might 
tramp and climb and for an indefinite period live. One 
envies the surveyors and builders of the railway who 
first forced their way through some of these mountain 
canyons, past the lovely lakes, along the tumbling 
streams. Remnants of their trails are here and there 
to be seen, and often they make one catch one's breath, 
when they seem to be just scratched on the face of a 
precipice. 

After having crossed the continent by every one of 
the principal Hues of railway, both in the United States 
and in Canada, I still think there is less of monotony 
along the Canadian Pacific Railway than there is in 
the United States west of the Mississippi until the Rocky 
Mountains are reached. When the Grand Trunk 
Pacific is finished it will, probably, make the prairie lose 
even more of its dreariness and sameness. 

Although the traveller realises some time before 
reaching Winnipeg, westward bound, that the mountains 
and hills have been left behind, he does not really begin 
to see ''the boundless prairies" until after passing well 
to the west of Winnipeg. When I first made that 
journey, I must admit that the settlements were few and 
far between: now they are many. Yet even twenty- 
five years ago, it did not seem tedious to cross the 
prairies. The railway was rarely a long straight stretch, 
so long that the rails seemed to come together in the 
distance as I looked back from the rear end of the train. 
It wound about the low, rolling mounds that seemed to 



PHYSICAL CANADA 133 

be like billows of a great green or brown sea, suddenly 
deprived of motion. 

There was plenty of vegetation and the wild flowers 
were innumerable. In the lush grass there were herds of 
antelopes feeding, or frightened into panic by the noise 
of the swiftly moving train. But even then the buffaloes 
had been so nearly exterminated, or driven far away by 
the advance of civilisation, that nothing remained as a 
reminder of them but skulls and heaps of bleached 
bones. Coyotes, jack rabbits, prairie-dogs, and other 
smaller animals were plentiful, and the co-tenants of the 
prairie-dogs, the owls and the rattlesnakes, were to be 
seen whenever we passed a "colony." So that had the 
land itself been entirely uninteresting — and it was 
rarely that — there was sufficient life to make the trip 
anything but tedious and monotonous. Always there 
were the most wonderful atmospheric effects; deceiving 
the eye as to distances. Now the settlements are so 
numerous that the express trains pass many stations 
without stopping — something that was never done 
twenty-five years ago — and farmhouses are rarely out 
of sight. The prairies are great grain fields or stretches 
of grazing land. The latter, however, are yearly shrink- 
ing in size along the railways; for to the husbandman, 
the bona fide householder especially, is given the right 
of way, precedence, and government protection against 
aggressive stockmen. 

But the most conspicuous change in the Canadian 
prairies is the development of railways throughout 
southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and almost 
equally so in Alberta. Where, only a very few years 



134 THE COMING CANADA 

ago, there was but one railway in this entire region, the 
main line of the Canadian Pacific, there are now three 
trunk Hues, the C. P. R., the Grand Trunk Pacific, and 
the Canadian Northern, to the eastern slope of the 
Rocky Mountains; while Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 
as far as Regina, are almost as much cut up by subordi- 
nate and branch Hues as is the state of Indiana. 

Inasmuch as railways are not often built merely for 
the pleasure of constructing them, and because there is 
no strategic demand for any of the numerous tributary 
lines, the fact that there are so many in this region 
indicates more clearly than words could how complete 
has been the transformation of the prairies, from lonely 
desolation to active life. 

Aside from the economic aspects of Canada's coasts 
and bays, these outlying bounds demand a Httle atten- 
tion because of their association and physical features; 
more than I can give, I am sorry to say. Sufiicient has 
been said of the history of the eastern part of the Domin- 
ion, although that Httle can give but a hint of this inter- 
esting subject. It is perhaps unwise to say that it was 
the fisheries of the American coast which first directed 
considerable attention to the New World; yet it is 
certain that the efforts of the first trading companies 
of New France did something to stimulate further 
exploration and effort to maintain possession of new 
territories. It is rather with physical features that we 
are now to deal. 

The province of New Brunswick has something like 
four hundred miles of coast, sometimes rocky, in other 
places marsh. The local names recall the aborigines, 



PHYSICAL CANADA 135 

who are now of really small importance in the active 
life of the province. Some of the place names remind us 
of the struggle between France and England: struggles 
that ended only a century and a half ago, and yet how 
dim is their history! 

The coast of New Brunswick, especially along the 
shores of Passamaquoddy Bay, is very popular with 
Canadians who wish to get away from the cities during 
the summer; and not a few citizens of the United States 
have followed the lead of their northern neighbours 
in estabHshing summer homes in New Brunswick and 
Nova Scotia. There would probably be more, were it 
not for the annoyance to which they would be subjected 
by U. S. Customs ofhcers when they return in the 
autumn. 

St. John, christened by Champlain, and the oldest 
incorporated city in Canada, is of most importance as 
a commercial centre. It is at the mouth of the deep 
estuary which penetrates far into the province, to 
Queens, Sunbury, and York counties: a trip by steam- 
boat up this estuary — called St. John's River — to 
Fredericton, the provincial capital, is a popular excursion; 
the quaint old town of Fredericton being attractive in 
many ways. St. John's River is bordered with villages 
and towns of some importance. Many visitors are seen 
there during the summer. 

The feature of this part of the coast which is most 
famous is the Bay of Fundy, about 170 miles long and 
from thirty to fifty miles wide. Its greatest fame, with 
boys and girls studying geography, is its rushing tide, 
rising some sixty to seventy feet. At the northern end 



136 THE COMING CANADA 

of Chignecto Bay, an arm of Fundy, stands the town 
of Amherst. From this place across to Port Elgin Bay, 
off Northumberland Soimd (which is between the main- 
land and Prince Edward Island), the distance is only 
about fifteen miles; and yet the tides on the Sound 
show nothing of the surprising phenomenon that is 
witnessed in Fundy waters. 

Nova Scotia's southern coast is indented by many 
estuaries; the most important being HaHfax Harbour, 
on which stands the city that was for a long time a port 
of call for so many lines of trans-Atlantic steamers. It 
is still an important place, but its glory has been tem- 
porarily dimmed since the large steamers pass by with- 
out stopping for coals and water. As it is open all the 
year round, HaUfax's importance is likely to be recov- 
ered as the Dominion's maritime trade expands. As 
a strategic point its value will always be great. The 
coasts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador, and the 
north must be passed by; not because they are not 
important — at present or prospectively — but for lack 
of space. 

The coast of British Columbia, from the southern end 
of Vancouver Island to the 55 th parallel of North latitude 
(where it joins Alaska), is an extremely interesting 
section. The scenery is grand, the natural resources 
wonderful, and the natives are still a subject that claims 
the attention of ethnologists. The student of mankind 
will find the Haida Indians of Queen Charlotte Islands 
an attractive subject, even if their arts have been greatly 
modernised. The totem-posts and huge canoes, most 
elaborately and symbolically carved, are famiHar objects 



PHYSICAL CANADA 137 

in all ethnological museums. After what has been said 
of the natural wealth, this part of the Dominion is 
especially interesting to the tourist and the sportsman, 
whose claims are to receive attention in the next 
chapter. 



CHAPTER X 

CANADA FOR THE TOURIST AND 
SPORTSMAN 

I MUST ask pardon of my Canadian friends for appro- 
priating the word "American" to designate specific- 
ally the citizens of the United States. I fully respect 
the right of those who were born and brought up in the 
Dominion to consider themselves as much ''American" 
as anyone hailing from the southern side of the St. 
Lawrence River or the International Boundary. Most 
Canadians are willing to let their ''Yankee" friends call 
themselves "Americans" and to speak of them as such. 
I differentiate for convenience only, and I do not wish 
to hurt anyone's feelings. After all, I have noticed 
that a good many faithful subjects of His Gracious 
Majesty King George, sojourning in Canada, insist upon 
being differentiated as "Englishmen," "Scotchmen," 
"Canadians." 

A tourist may be defined as one who travels for the 
pleasure of doing so merely to widen his horizon or with 
a dilettante desire to increase his fund of information 
about the world and its inhabitants. This description 
being accepted, the American tourist is too prone to 
consider it his duty to rush over to Europe. As soon as 
Fortune has smiled upon him so kindly as to leave him 
with more ready money than suffices to provide abun- 



TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 139 

dantly for those dependent upon him, he books his 
passage for the Old World, before he knows anything 
about his own country. Very often it is a teacher who 
turns tourist during the summer vacation, in which case 
the pronoun must, more than half the time, be made 
feminine, or inclusive of both sexes, if a general state- 
ment is made. 

I remember being told by the captain of a Pacific liner, 
that long experience and close observation justified his 
saying that very few Americans (and he meant both 
Canadians and people from the United States) had 
earned the right to travel abroad, because not one in a 
hundred knew his own country at all. On the voyage, 
when he made that remark, there were a number of 
tourists on board the steamer, going to Japan, China, 
the Philippines, the East Indies, British India, on to 
Europe by the Suez Canal, and then home to settle 
down again. 

As I was disposed to think as the captain did, we 
agreed to interrogate our fellow voyagers to see how 
much they knew of their respective countries by actual 
travel. I must say, on my own behalf, that the captain 
had previously admitted I had gained the right to see 
all the rest of the world, because I had already been in 
all but two or three of our states at that time, as well as 
into the four divisions, Oklahoma, Indian, Arizona, and 
New Mexico, which were then territories, but have now 
been admitted into the Union of States. I had, too, 
been in Canada, from east to west. 

When we compared notes towards the end of the 
voyage, I was astonished to find that not one American 



I40 THE COMING CANADA 

or Canadian had travelled anything Hke thoroughly in 
North America. Most of my fellow passengers had 
seen Niagara Falls; one or two had entered the Mam- 
moth Cave; a few had crossed the Mississippi River; 
several had been to the Yosemite Valley; one or two had 
gone through the Yellowstone Park; not one, besides 
myself, had been in the Gulf States, and therefore they 
knew nothing about New Orleans. Many of the Ameri- 
cans had never been to their National Capital, Wash- 
ington. Few of the Canadians had travelled in the 
United States. Not any of the Americans had ever 
been in the Dominion until they joined the Canadian 
Pacific train at Montreal, North Bay, or Winnipeg, or 
boarded the steamer at Vancouver or Victoria. Yet 
those who were really tourists seemed to feel that they 
must go abroad in order to see something of the world. 

I am now more than ever convinced of the wisdom of 
that captain's remark, because I have had greater oppor- 
tunities to widen my own horizon, and to observe my 
fellow countrymen as tourists in many parts of the 
world. American tourists (the word is now used in- 
clusively) have a great deal to see and do between the 
Isthmus of Panama and the Arctic Ocean, before they 
need cross either the Atlantic or the Pacific for the mere 
pleasure of travelling. 

Of course I would not be understood as being disposed 
to hinder the student or the teacher from going to the 
Old World for research, experience, or broadening; 
the personal pleasure and benefit are compensated by 
the abihty to help others. I am speaking of the tourist, 
the "globe trotter," It is not my province just now 



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TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 141 

to discuss the enormous wealth of material for the tourist 
in the United States of America. But even the Ameri- 
can who has fairly well explored the States, has yet a 
good deal that he may do in the Dominion of Canada, 
before he has exhausted the resources of home, and must 
turn to Europe, Asia, or Africa for new worlds to conquer. 

Several suggestions have already been given in these 
pages; but perhaps the touring that they connote may 
be a Httle too strenuous for the average traveller who 
is solely on pleasure bent. For such, there is hardly a 
railway line in the Dominion which does not offer 
attractions. Every one of the principal railway com- 
panies advertises summer, or winter, or all the year 
round resorts that are alluring, and the corporations have 
made effort to enhance natural charms by providing 
faciHties for getting to these places, and for looking 
after the creature comforts of patrons. As yet, the 
Canadian Pacific Railway is in the lead, with Banff, 
Revelstoke, Glacier House, and minor points on the 
main line, or newer ones on some of the branches. But 
the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Canadian Northern, the 
Intercolonial, and other lines now offer their attractions, 
and these are being added to each year. 

There are several sections of the Dominion that 
possess great attraction for the tourist and the sports- 
man. Some of these I wish to discuss specifically in 
separate chapters, such as the Great St. Lawrence Basin, 
from the little lake, Bear's Head, to the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence; the Canadian Rockies; the Hudson Bay 
territory, and the province of Manitoba. But there is 
much left even after cutting off such large slices. 



142 THE COMING CANADA 

The tourist who takes his pleasure in yachting has 
ahnost infinite possibiUties along the eastern coasts of 
the Dominion, where there are plenty of good harbours, 
excellent fish, and suppHes of all kinds to be had for 
reasonable prices. Such a traveller should prepare him- 
self for the cruise by reading about the places he is going 
to visit, for they are rich in history and sentimental or 
romantic association. If the land of Evangeline has 
been transformed beyond physical recognition, there 
still remain the romance and perfume of bygone times. 
Grand Pre is still on the shore of Minas Basin, Nova 
Scotia: to be sure, it is now a railway station and the 
forest primeval has disappeared forever. 

A word of warning, based upon personal experience, 
may not be out of place here. It is, to watch the 
weather carefully, especially if cruising in a sailing 
craft. In the summer, when the yachtsman is sure to 
seek the Canadian coast, the fog often comes in quickly 
and is so dense as to make navigation exceedingly 
dangerous. Then, too, the wind frequently plays 
awkward tricks, either in rising to a sudden gale, intro- 
duced by violent squalls, or in dropping to a calm just 
when the saiHng craft is in a tight place. 

The important provinces, New Brunswick, Nova 
Scotia, and Newfoundland of course, have been so 
thoroughly described, that all needed information is 
readily procured; but one of the most attractive bits 
of the Dominion, for the tourist, is not so well known 
as are the other eastern portions. Just about the 
centre of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there is a group of 
thirteen rocky islets, the Magdalen Islands. They are 



TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 143 

fifty miles from Prince Edward Island to the eastward; 
and Newfoundland is ninety miles still farther east. 
Although these seemingly bleak rocks have a popula- 
tion of some eight thousand souls, they are not well 
known and are rarely visited. Yet their history is 
interesting, *'for they were involved in the various 
conflicts between England and France, and were fre- 
quently the subject of treaties and conventions between 
the two Powers." 

It is not impertinent to remark here that some writers 
still insist upon speaking of Newfoundland as the oldest 
British colony. That honour, I am sure, belongs to the 
Bermudas. Newfoundland came into the British colonial 
system at the same time as Nova Scotia, not earlier than 
162 1. On a Spanish map of 15 11, the Bermudas are 
marked as a British colony. E. J. Payne, a careful 
student of British North American history, says of the 
Bermudas: ''English colonists established themselves 
on St. George's Island in 161 2 under a grant from the 
Virginia Company. Fresh relays of colonists arrived 
and after the settlement of a large body in 1619, the 
administration became vested in a governor, council, 
and elective assembly." The visitor to the Magdalen 
Islands who is so fortunate as to make friends with any 
of the older residents, will gain a rich reward in the tales 
of the sea which most of those folks can tell. 

It will be the sportsman, probably, who is more likely 
to push his way up the Labrador coast, for to that 
country more and more fishermen are going each sum- 
mer. The accounts of sociological and ethnological 
study with which we have been favoured by several 



144 THE COMING C AN ADA 

writers lately, indicate that the good work of evangelisa- 
tion and civilisation, already more than well begun, 
offers a rich field for the philanthropist. It would be 
ungracious not to mention the name of the Rev. Wilfred 
Thomason Grenfell, to whom not only I am greatly 
beholden, but all who have visited Labrador are equally 
indebted. 

The northern portions of the Dominion offer endless 
attractions to the tourist. Not only is the scenery 
varied and rarely tame, but the successful effort which 
is being made to extend the limit of the inhabited and 
cultivated zone far into those north lands appeals 
strongly to all visitors. By the time this book is in the 
hands of readers, it will probably be possible to go by 
train from Winnipeg all the way to the shores of Hudson 
Bay. It will almost certainly be possible to cross the 
Rocky Mountains by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 
through the more northern pass which it has selected 
for its right of way. Besides, there will be other branch 
lines of the various great railway systems built into 
this Wonderland of the North. With all these facilities 
at his service, the tourist or sportsman will have his 
horizon much expanded. 

It is a little difficult to write of the attractions which 
British Columbia holds forth to the tourist and the 
sportsman, without seeming to indulge in extravagance 
which, taxes the credulity of those who have not had 
actual experience. Mountains, lakes, glaciers, canyons, 
babbling brooks, mighty rivers, primeval forests, land- 
scape and marine view, all phases of natural scenery are 
presented in magnificent quantities. Then the pleasing 



TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 145 

results of man's effort in availing himself of agricultural 
possibilities have developed great orchards and culti- 
vated fields which speak for themselves. 

Of big game and Kttle game, feathered and four- 
footed, there is an abundance; although, as is but 
natural, each year necessitates going a Kttle farther 
afield to secure the gratification of killing the big ani- 
mals. The ambitious tourist who likes to blaze his own 
trails will find that a considerable part of extreme 
northern British Columbia has not yet been explored 
thoroughly. He may easily add a valuable page or 
two to the records which will hereafter be utilised by 
writers who will do justice to the trails among the world 
full of hills within the limits of British Columbia. 

There may yet be glaciers hidden away in those 
mountains that are not known, but a word may be said 
of one which is easily accessible. Soon after the traveller 
by the Canadian Pacific line has crossed the crest of 
the Rockies and entered the Selkirks, the train stops 
at Glacier House, usually for a meal, because the heavy 
gradients and sharp curves make it unadvisable to add 
a dining-car to the weight of the train, and whether it 
be breakfast, dinner, or supper, the meal is a good one. 

From the station platform or the hotel verandah, one 
sees a great glacier stretching back far into the moun- 
tains; and in summer it looks rather grimy for each 
passing engine adds a Kttle to the soot upon it. This ice- 
river, like all those on the western slopes of the Cordil- 
leran system of which we know anything, is technicaUy 
said to be ''in retreat." That is, it is evident, from the 
moraines which continue far down below the present 



146 THE COMING CANADA 

end of the ice, that all these glaciers formerly reached 
down much farther than they do now. The slow 
movement downward is not sufficient to compensate 
the loss by melting. Unless conditions change, all these 
glaciers will disappear. The great Muir Glacier in 
Alaska may be an exception, but I am not certain; it 
gives birth to a goodly number of icebergs each year! 

It is astonishing how the ice-river at Glacier House 
holds the gaze of those who look at it for the first time, 
particularly young people and children, as if they were 
fascinated. I have known such to stand gazing in 
silent wonder until the bell rang for passengers to entrain, 
and thus miss the meal that had been waiting for them. 
I have known, too, older passengers who were booked 
for passage to Japan or China by the connecting steamer, 
to telegraph to Vancouver to transfer their reservation 
to the next steamer, a fortnight or three weeks later, 
in order that they might stay and make the intimate, 
famihar acquaintance of the glacier. 

In the summer, when the salmon are running, there is 
good sport for the fisherman in all the lower reaches of 
the British Columbia rivers. As this is the season when 
the ablebodied men and women are likely to be engaged 
in the hop-fields or other harvesting work, the sports- 
man may have to depend upon an old squaw to take 
him in a canoe. I remember an amusing incident which 
came as part of my first summer in British Columbia 
waters. It was August and the salmon were plentiful 
and in prime condition as they came in from the sea. 
The old dame who had contracted to paddle while I 
trolled, when she found that her "King George Man" 




Fishing Camp, Northern Quebec Province 




Speckled Trout Fishing, Algonquin National Park 



TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 147 

(the Chinook, lingua franca, for an Englishman and 
therefore all white men) knew how to wield a paddle, 
was inclined to shirk her duty. When called upon to 
resume her paddle, which she had laid down for a few 
minutes to tidy up the little craft, at first she attempted 
by pantomime to flatter. That faiHng, she demurred 
volubly and vehemently, but unavaiHngly. She had 
to paddle and let the King George Man fish ! 

The visitor to the remoter sections of Canada, those 
which are really the most attractive to the thorough 
tourist and keen sportsman, will surely have the pleas- 
ure of making acquaintance with some of the Mounted 
Police, those original "Rough Riders" from whom 
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt borrowed the title for his 
regiment during the Spanish-American war. They 
know the country as no other man can; they are ac- 
quainted with the best hunting, shooting, and fishing 
grounds, and willingly give useful ''tips" to anyone 
who asks for information. If the visit of the stranger 
happens to be at a time when the demands of duty are 
momentarily relaxed, no guide can be found comparable 
with a Mounted Policeman: they are experts in every 
art which contributes to the gratification and comfort 
of tourist or sportsman. Then too, if these guardians 
are not of direct, personal aid to the visitor, the influ- 
ence of their presence is felt everywhere and contributes 
greatly to his comfort. This is illustrated by the state- 
ment that on the three hundred mile road from White 
Horse to Dawson, the traveller is as safe as in any part 
of Canada. I wish the same thing might be said of the 
Alaskan side of the Klondike region. 



148 THE COMING CANADA 

If anyone can read Mr. Frank Yeigh's account of a 
trip along the trail from Glacier House station, Cana- 
dian Pacific Railway, to the Cougar Caves, without 
longing for the opportunity to enjoy that experience 
for himself, I shall be greatly surprised. From the 
railway a small mule pack-train starts for Deutsch- 
man's Cabin far away to the north, near the head of 
Cougar Valley. It descends into the Illicillewaet River 
gorge, and then goes up and up to the cabin. Thence a 
stiff scramble brings one to the caves, bored by the 
rushing river deep down through the limestone. 

It is said that until Charles Deutschman discovered 
these Selkirk caves in October, 1904, the one natural 
curiosity that the Dominion seemed to lack was caves. 
The stigma is now completely removed, for the three 
superimposed sets of caves, at different levels, are not 
by any means contemptible rivals of the Mammoth 
Cave, Kentucky, or the Luray Caverns, Virginia. ''One 
of the three series of caves is, curiously enough, practi- 
cally filled with ice, and this fact produces some striking 
effects. Instead of limestone stalactites, here there are 
stalactites of purest ice and of wondrous beauty, espe- 
cially when illuminated with the magnesium light. Ice 
deposits fill the crevices of the rocks, making other 
strange animal and bird forms. One such ice-bank 
resembles a gigantic sea-lion vainly trying to scale the 
dark wall overhead. From a cavernous opening there 
hung suspended an ice Niagara — a fall transfixed in 
the grasp of the frost king, and a more beautiful object 
could not well be imagined in the thick darkness beneath 
or in the sunlit world above. One ice-filled gallery 



TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN I49 

ended in a perfect fireplace, as if to mock the chill of 
the glacial interior." * 

These wonderful caves are still inaccessible to all 
save those who are able to rough it and do some very- 
hard climbing. I must bring this chapter to a close 
with a recommendation to both tourist and sportsman 
to make personal acquaintance with the Mackenzie 
River and all the streams of British Columbia. All of 
them will well repay the labour involved in getting to 
them, and they are sufficiently off beaten tracks to give 
the compensation of novelty which most travellers 
enjoy. 

* Through the Heart of Canada. 



CHAPTER XI 
CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES 

IF there were sufficient space at my disposal, I think 
it would be right to begin this chapter with some 
consideration of the intercourse between the British 
colonies in North America, from the founding of Virginia 
and the landing of the Pilgrims, and the French colony 
in Canada until the transfer of France's rights, in 1763. 
There should then follow a discussion at some length of 
the relations between the older and the newer British 
colonies during the brief interval until the breaking out 
of the War of American Independence in 1775. Limi- 
tations are put upon me, however, and I must pass over 
those most interesting one hundred and sixty-eight years. 
The action of the General Congress of the thirteen 
colonies, in October, 1774, presaged the independence 
which was soon to follow, and I think this may be taken 
as a starting point for a discussion of the intercourse 
between the United States and Canada. It is not at 
all surprising that British writers call John Dickinson's 
address to the inhabitants of Quebec '*a high sounding 
appeal." Dickinson was a member of the first Conti- 
nental Congress, when the people were already girding 
up their loins for a struggle with England. He drew up 
a communication from the colonists to their ''friends 



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CANADA AND UNITED STATES 151 

and fellow subjects" inviting the Canadians to join in 
opposing English tyranny. But if we put ourselves, as 
much as possible, in the position of the American colonists 
at that time, we cannot endorse this severe criticism. 

It was, I admit, rather grandiloquent, yet thoroughly 
consistent with forensic eloquence of the time, to depict 
the shade of the great Montesquieu as saying to the 
Canadian habitants: *'The happiness of a people in- 
evitably depends upon their liberty and their spirit to 
assert that liberty. The value and extent of the ad- 
vantages tendered you are immense. This work is not 
of man; you have been conquered into liberty, if you act 
as you ought. Seize the opportunity presented to you 
by Providence itself. You are a small people, com- 
pared with those who, with open arms, invite you into 
fellowship. The injuries of Boston have roused and 
associated every colony from Nova Scotia to Georgia. 
Your province is the only link wanting to complete the 
bright and strong chain of union. Nature has joined 
your country to theirs; do you join your political inter- 
ests; for their own sakes, they never will desert or 
betray you." 

The appeal failed entirely in its object, even if the 
American leaders had reason to expect a different result 
by arguing from the first display of feeling on the part 
of the French Canadians, immediately after the break- 
ing out of hostilities in New England. Canada was 
almost totally indifferent when the Revolution com- 
menced, and therefore the Continental commander. 
General Richard Montgomery, with a body of troops 
from New England, had little difffculty in invading 



152 THE COMING CANADA 

Canada, capturing Chambly and Montreal and carry- 
ing the attack right up to the walls of Quebec. 

During this episode many French Canadians and even 
some British malcontents, openly or secretly gave 
assistance to the Americans; ''but even then the large 
majority of the French Canadians remained neutral, 
and, if some joined the ranks of the invaders, others, 
including especially the higher ranks of the population, 
supported her cause. Here was a people lately con- 
quered, under the rule of an alien race. A golden 
opportunity was given them, it seemed, to recover 
their freedom. Why did the French colonists not 
throw in their lot whole-hearted with the English 
settlers in North America? Why did they prefer to 
remain under the British Crown?"* The eminent 
authority answers his own questions, and all students 
of Canadian history concur in saying that in those few 
years of British domination, the habitants had already 
learnt what freedom and sympathy meant as they had 
never known under French rule. They were too con- 
tented to take any risk by changing masters! 

It is lamentable that even in the remote times of one 
hundred and forty years ago, there were unmistakable 
signs of animosity between Britons on the Canadian 
side of the border and their fellows on the southern side 
thereof. Those Canadian French ''did not love the 
English from England; they loved less their English 
neighbours in America; and they were not disposed 
to overthrow the British Government in order to sub- 
ject themselves to the rule of the English colonists." 

* Lucas, op. cit. 



CANADA AND UNITED STATES 1 53 

Yet a little comfort is to be gleaned from even this 
unsuccessful effort at diplomacy; and it is that there 
appeared a disposition to lessen, if not to wipe out 
entirely, the prejudice on the part of the Puritans against 
the Roman CathoKc religion. Of the three commis- 
sioners sent as avant courriers to induce les habitants to 
join in revolt, one was a Quaker and two were Romanists. 

The War of American Independence actually, if not 
avowedly, began with the famous skirmish at Lexington, 
April 19th, 1775. Between that date and the first real 
battle of the war, Bunker Hill, June 17th of the same 
year, there was begun the effort to effect the conquest 
of Canada. Ticonderoga and Crown Point, both on 
Lake Champlain (and considered, as has been already 
pointed out, the "Keys of Canada's southern gate"), 
were surprised and captured without much difficulty, 
because they were in wretched condition and inade- 
quately garrisoned and supplied. Governor Guy Carle- 
ton (afterwards Lord Dorchester) had urged the repair 
of these posts, and their equipment or abandonment. 

It was through Carleton's effort that the siege of 
Quebec failed, and while that siege had lasted five 
months, he took justifiable pride in the fact that all 
attempts of the besiegers had been defeated. From the 
Canadian's point of view, too much importance can 
hardly be attached to Carleton's success at Quebec. 
Americans, when considering this important episode, 
cannot but regret that Benedict Arnold, who had "dealt 
the hardest blow to the British cause in Canada," did 
not share the fate of his associate, Montgomery, who was 
killed in an attempt to capture Quebec by creeping along 



154 THE COMING CANADA 

the river bank from Wolfe's Landing, under Cape 
Diamond into the lower town. 

There is little more to be said about relations between 
Canada and the United States during the rest of the 
Revolution. A few engagements took place, but they 
were of no importance, and the close of the war left the 
boundary practically as it now is from the Great Lakes 
to Passamaquoddy Bay, except that the Ashburton 
Treaty of 1842 allowed the state of Maine to project 
farther to the north in the provinces of Quebec and New 
Brunswick than Canadians declared it should do. 

By the Treaty of Paris, September 3rd, 1783, the 
Mississippi River was accepted as the American boundary 
on the west. I refrain from commenting at length upon 
the anomalous condition which has arisen because of 
the declaration that the northwestern point of the Lake 
of the Woods shall be "the northwestern point of the 
United States." The result is that a piece of the state 
of Minnesota is detached from the main body, and is 
a sort of "No Man's Land." From that corner of the 
Lake of the Woods, the boundary was to be drawn "on 
a due west course to the River Mississippi." All the 
parties in interest and the plenipotentiaries were labour- 
ing under the mistake that the source of the Mississippi 
was very much farther north than it is. Consequently 
this determination of the prolongation of the boundary 
called for a geographical impossibility. Probably there 
was confusion of the Red River of the North with the 
Mississippi. The determination of the frontier from 
the Mississippi westward to the Pacific is likewise a 
matter which must be deferred for the moment. 



CANADA AND UNITED STATES 155 

The second article of the treaty of 1783 reads: ''And 
that all disputes which might arise in future on the sub- 
ject of the Boundaries of the said United States may be 
prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the 
following are and shall be their Boundaries." All who 
are specially interested should read the treaty: it is 
enlightening to see how small a part of the present 
domain was included in the United States of 1783. That 
simple adjustment was but a momentary affair. The 
control of North America west of the Mississippi River 
in the United States, and beyond the very vague bound- 
ary of the Hudson's Bay Company's territory in the 
north, was entirely unprovided for. That was an almost 
unknown wilderness. To be sure some of the American 
colonies, newly born States, claimed jurisdiction west- 
ward to the Pacific Ocean between certain parallels of 
latitude or assigned lines which were their northern and 
southern boundaries. The delimitation of boundaries 
as between the United States and Canada was com- 
plicated by almost indescribably vague conditions. 
Therefore the "first settlement of the quarrel between 
Great Britain and her old North American colonies 
left an aftermath of troublesome questions, causing 
constant friction, endless negotiations, and a succession 
of supplementary conventions." * 

The first boundary dispute was the determination of 
just which one of three rivers, all emptying into Passa- 
maquoddy Bay and each claimed to be the St. Croix of 
Champlain's days, was actually that stream. The 
boundaries that have been mentioned begin "from the 

* Lucas, op. cit. 



156 THE COMING CANADA 

North- West Angle of Nova Scotia, viz., the Angle which 
is formed by a hne drawn due North, from the source of 
St. Croix River to the Highlands." John Jay, then 
special envoy to the Court of St. James to negotiate 
with the British Government for more friendly relations, 
concluded a treaty on November 19th, 1794, by the fifth 
article of which this matter of determining the source 
of the St. Croix River was left to three commissioners, 
one to be appointed by each Government, and the third 
to be chosen by the other two. The treaty was ratified 
in August, 1795, and in the following year the commis- 
sioners began their work; the two appointed by the 
respective Governments choosing an American jurist as 
their associate. Another, explanatory treaty had to 
be signed by the two Governments to absolve the com- 
missioners from responsibihty beyond their specific duty 
of fixing the river's source. When the boundary was 
defined, a considerable area was cut off from New 
Brunswick; naturally to the dissatisfaction of the 
inhabitants and Canadians generally. This, however, 
did not settle the boundary disputes in this region, 
because although the commissioners identified the St. 
Croix River from its mouth to its source, they did not 
actually define the boundary down the course of the 
river and out to the mouth of Passamaquoddy Bay, nor 
did they attempt the impossibility of estabhshing that 
line "due North from the source of St. Croix River to 
the Highlands"; because those liills do not extend far 
enough east to meet such a right line. The dispute 
about this last mentioned hne nearly brought on war 
between Great Britain and the United States. The 



CANADA AND UNITED STATES 157 

boundary was not settled until sixty years later. Igno- 
rance of geography that any schoolboy to-day ought to 
be ashamed to display, was responsible for all this 
trouble. I have gone into details to show how compli- 
cated have been these boundary disputes; but I have 
not given all the particulars of this case. 

Ashburton's treaty, by which — on January 28th, 
1847 — the northeastern boundary between Canada and 
the United States was delimited, has always been 
declared by Canadians to give the latter country terri- 
tory to which Great Britain had an incontestable claim. 
The determination of the ownership of islands in Passa- 
maquoddy Bay was another cause of dispute. So far 
as the islands alone are concerned, the question was 
settled by arbitration in November, 18 17, but the actual 
boundary between the two countries out into the Bay 
of Fundy has not yet been delimited. This awaits 
action under the Treaty of April 11, 1908, for the de- 
limitation of International Boundaries between Canada 
and the United States. 

In the west, the dispute over lands in the Oregon or 
Columbia territory was bitter, and the slogan "54-40 
or fight" indicated the American feeling. Calm com- 
promise or friendly arbitration allayed the tension — 
even if either rarely gave satisfaction. In time, the 
extreme northern parts of the International Boundary 
were delimited. The Klondike dispute was Hkewise 
settled without recourse to extreme measures, even if 
Canada was far from satisfied. The delimitation of 
the boundary between Yukon Province and Alaska was 
marked by a joint commission in loii only. The 



158 THE COMING CANADA 

transfer of Russia's rights in Alaska to the United States, 
March 30, 1867, gave rise to disputes as to fishing-rights 
in Behring Sea. Arbitration decided that the United 
States has no exclusive rights. 

*'The last phase in the evolution of the Boundary 
line between Canada and the United States is the Treaty 
of nth of April, 1908, 'for the dehmitation of Inter- 
national Boundaries between Canada and the United 
States,' by which machinery is provided 'for the more 
complete definition and demarcation of the International 
Boundary,' and for settling any small outstanding 
points such as, e.g., the boundary line through Passa- 
maquoddy Bay." * 

From the close of the War of American Independence, 
1783, until President Madison, in 181 2, issued a procla- 
mation which brought on the ''War of 181 2" between 
the United States and Great Britain, the principal 
feature that marks the intercourse between Canada and 
the United States was the action of those who were 
called United Empire LoyaHsts and their treatment, 
not only by Canada and the British Government, but 
by the Government of the United States as well. 

When the Revolution broke out, with the firing of 
that first shot by "the embattled farmers" at Concord 
and Lexington, it was estimated that of the entire white 
population of the thirteen American colonies, fully one- 
third, or about seven hundred thousand, were actively 
or passively loyal to Great Britain. There were fairly 
reliable authorities who put the number at even higher 
figures; declaring that they decidedly outnumbered 

* Lucas, op. cH. 




Fossil Hunting, Mt. Robson District, B. C. 



CANADA AND UNITED STATES 1 59 

those who were opposed to British methods and eventu- 
ally in favour of separation from the Mother Country, 
even if that action involved war. 

It is certain that a preponderance of those Loyalists 
was in New York, the capital of which colony was in 
possession of the British from September, 1776, until 
its evacuation after the surrender in 1783. A majority 
of the white citizens of Pennsylvania, as well as those of 
South Carolina and Georgia, also were LoyaHsts; and 
in all the other colonies a very large number of the 
better classes of citizens were British sympathisers. 
Probably there were over thirty thousand of the men in 
regularly organised miUtary companies, besides those 
who carried on a guerilla warfare in South CaroHna and 
other colonies. 

Americans have come only lately to look upon these 
*' Tories," as they were called contemptuously, with 
that fairness to which most of them were entitled. 
Surely no one will charge such a man as the late John 
Fiske with disloyalty to American institutions; yet he 
and other reputable writers compare the LoyaHsts of 
1776 with the Union sympathisers in the Southern 
Confederacy during the Civil War of 186 1-5. Others 
refuse to see anything good in the LoyaHsts and measure 
them entirely by their participation in such outrages as 
the Wyoming VaHey massacre and similar acts which 
were brutal and indefensible. 

A long Hst might be given of names which command 
respect; men who deprecated separation. It is an 
interesting fact that the relations between Great Britain 
and the Dominion of Canada are now regulated by just 



l6o THE COMING CANADA 

such principles as were urged in the interests of England 
and her thirteen original colonies a hundred and thirty 
odd years ago. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, a great 
Loyalist, to whom tardy justice has recently been done 
by impartial historians in the country wherein his 
motives and acts were for so long misunderstood and 
misrepresented, took that position.* 

During the war both Revolutionists and Loyahsts 
displayed bitter hatred of each other. The latter's 
estates were confiscated, individuals imprisoned, banished, 
disqualified from holding office, and some who ven- 
tured to return after the war were subjected to severe 
penalties provided for by legislative enactments. The 
VI th article of the Treaty of Paris reads: ''That there 
shall be no future confiscations made, nor any prosecu- 
tions commenced against any person or persons, for or 
by reason of the part which he or they may have taken 
in the present war; and that no person shall on that 
account suffer any loss or damage either in his person, 
liberty or property, and that those who may be in 
confinement on such charges at the time of the ratifica- 
tion of the Treaty in America, shall be immediately set 
at liberty, and the prosecutions so commenced be 
discontinued." 

In spite of that obligation, those Loyalists who re- 
turned failed to secure return of confiscated estates or 
any generous treatment, and there was nothing for them 
to do but leave the United States. More than thirty- 
five thousand went to Canada, and with them a large 
number of faithful negro servants. Most of the latter 

* Cf. Canada, ijdg-igoo, Sir John G. Bourinot. 




Transport, Athabaska River, 56° 40' N. 




Transport, Athabaska River 



CANADA AND UNITED STATES l6l 

were subsequently deported to Sierra Leone, Africa. A 
majority of the whites settled in New Brunswick; others 
in the St. Lawrence Valley and along the shores of the 
Great Lakes. The British Government tried to do its 
best to compensate these LoyaHsts for the loss of their 
property, by making liberal grants of land. Later some 
of the original refugees, or the descendants of others, 
made their way back to the United States; while many 
of the best families in the Dominion trace their ancestry 
back to these United Empire LoyaKsts. 

Very briefly stated, the causes which led up to the war 
of 1812-15, between the United States and Great Britain 
were, first; the right of search of neutral vessels in time 
of war for contraband articles; and second; impressment 
of British sailors who were members of neutral vessels' 
crews. The United States, with abundant reason, 
contended that Great Britain was carrying out her 
alleged rights in these matters with absolute disregard 
for the rights of others. War was declared and although 
ultimate victory was gained by the United States, yet 
the main principles at issue were not formally decided. 
Impressment has long since been discontinued; but the 
right of search has not yet been positively fixed. 

Canada suffered more than did Great Britain in the 
War of 181 2, and Canadian publicists have justly con- 
tended that it was not fair to attack the provinces 
because of faults for which the Canadians were in no 
way responsible; but this was a weak position. The 
white population of Canada, in 181 2, was estimated at 
half a milHon; that of the United States at six and a 
half millions. Yet the results of some of the land 



l62 THE COMING CANADA 

engagements were not at all discreditable to Canada. 
During the war the United Empire Loyalists contributed 
much to the effectiveness of the provincial militia and 
to the successful defense of their country. Peace was 
welcomed by all in America, whether Canadians or 
citizens of the United States. One of the notable effects 
of that war was the soHdifying of the various racial 
elements in Canada; all classes, Gaul or Briton, united 
in support of continued connection with Great Britain. 

During the Civil War in the United States, the senti- 
ment of the Canadian people was generally against the 
Federal Government. Although no open assistance 
was afforded the Confederacy, yet we know very well 
that the privileges of HaHfax and other harbours were 
granted to Confederate privateers in contravention of 
neutraHty. Many Canadians looked upon all this as 
a fair requital for invasion in the past; and their acts 
did not make for friendly relations. 

Although a patriotic and loyal citizen, I have no 
excuse to offer for the failure of my Government to pre- 
vent the Fenian raids of 1866. In the month of April 
of that year, a small body of Irishmen made a demon- 
stration on the New Brunswick frontier. It had no 
effect in the way the aggressors had hoped; but it did 
contribute towards rousing into activity the movement 
for confederation which ere long resulted in the creation 
of the Dominion of Canada. In June, 1866, a number 
of Fenians crossed the Niagara River at Buffalo and 
gained an insignificant victory over a small force of 
"Toronto Volunteers" (mostly students). A few days 
later they surprised and defeated a small detachment of 



CANADA AND UNITED STATES 163 

militia. But upon learning that a considerable body 
of regulars and volunteers under competent officers was 
coming against them, these Fenians scattered and 
returned to the United States, where the ringleaders 
were arrested by order of the Government. Similar 
raids were made in the eastern townships of Lower 
Canada, and were equally unsuccessful. The Canadian 
authorities displayed admirable clemency in their treat- 
ment of captured bandits; not one of whom was executed, 
as all might lawfully have been. No indemnity was ever 
made by the United States for damage inflicted and 
expenses incurred by a neighbour, although the police 
responsibihty was indisputable. I am sorry that I 
must close this chapter by saying that, in my opinion, 
while personal relations are most friendly, others have 
not been so since 1775, and a good deal must be forgiven 
and forgotten on both sides before they can be. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE LURE OF CANADA 

SOME of the attractions of Canada have been already 
mentioned; but they were of a different nature 
from the one which is to be discussed in this chapter. 
We are now to consider a very practical matter; one that 
has greatly affected the United States and is Hkely to 
do so even more, unless measures are taken to coimteract 
the lure of Canada. 

Investors who seek opportunities to exploit mines, 
build railways, or engage in any other industrial or 
commercial enterprise, are made welcome in the Domin- 
ion and are afforded the fullest protection by the laws, 
as well as equal opportunity by the people. But the 
policy of the officials is not to make any stupendous 
effort to attract such investors; whereas every allure- 
ment which can be fairly set forth and brilliantly pic- 
tured is being held up to induce settlers from the United 
States, from Europe, or from any other part of the 
globe to come in and possess themselves of some of 
the millions of acres which are awaiting the farmer or 
the stockman. These lands are represented, and quite 
truthfully, as merely waiting to be tickled when they 
will laugh with plenty. 

It may be contended that the effort which the Depart- 



THE LURE OF CANADA • 165 

ments of the Interior and of Agriculture, especially, are 
making to induce immigration from the United States, 
contradicts a statement of the last chapter that there 
is in Canada a lack of friendliness for her neighbour, 
to be detected in certain matters. Yet I think such 
a possible charge will be withdrawn when conditions 
are carefully considered. After all, is there anything 
altruistic in drawing away from the United States 
175,000 people in one year, as was done by Canada in 
191 2? These figures, and they are rather appalling, 
represent the emigration from the States into the 
Dominion, and the people themselves were, without 
exception, the kind that the United States could least 
afford to lose* They were nearly all from the territory 
west of the Mississippi Valley, principally from the 
northwestern states; and if they did not actually 
abandon farms, homesteads, or ranches, they certainly 
left a gap to be filled by people who are, for the moment 
at least, less desirable than the emigrants, if they are 
not absolutely undesirable. In newspaper comment 
upon the scarcity of farm hands in the Middle West, 
insufficient importance has been attached to this flow 
of farmers and the like into Canada. 

As has been said, the public lands of Canada are 
surveyed in almost precisely the same way as is the 
similar domain in the United States; technically by 
base and meridian, township and range. That is, 
townships six miles square are laid off by lines running 
as nearly true north and south and east and west as 
may be. This township is marked off into sections of 
one mile square (640 acres), and the section is sub- 



l66 THE COMING CANADA 

divided into quarter sections. A quarter section is 
taken as the unit for preemption. Of the thirty-six 
sections in a township, two are reserved from homestead 
entry, and are designated ''School Sections." That is, 
the 1280 acres which these sections contain are sold to 
cash purchasers and the money received is held as a 
fund to build school houses, maintain them, and generally 
to defray all the expenses of pubhc, absolutely free 
education. 

There are, too, certain sections withdrawn from pubhc 
entry, because they were granted as a subsidy to rail- 
ways. The railway lands are sold by the grantee upon 
favourable terms and the proceeds go into its treasury. 
In the case of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the original 
land grant was extremely Hberal, and without it the 
building of the hne would have been greatly delayed, 
if it had not been rendered impossible thirty years ago; 
but this subject of railway lands economically con- 
sidered belongs in a later chapter. 

The public land surveys have not yet been extended 
north of a line drawn from the middle of the east bound- 
ary of Manitoba, northwesterly to the 56th parallel 
of latitude in Alberta; and there are some unsurveyed 
tracts in southwestern Alberta. That is to say, only 
about the southern one-third of these three provinces, 
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, has been sur- 
veyed and made available for preemption entry. The 
total area of Saskatchewan and Alberta is 504,190 square 
miles. What the area of Manitoba is, since its northern 
boundary was thrown much farther north, I do not 
know; previous to that it was 74,000 square miles. Not 



THE LURE OF CANADA 167 

all of the public land within the surveyed districts is 
open to homestead entry. The Dominion Government 
has set aside certain tracts as reservations for Indians, 
or for forest preserves, or public parks, or experimental 
stations. But all agricultural land in Manitoba, Sas- 
katchewan, and Alberta wliich has been surveyed (and 
not actually occupied or reserved) is open to preemption 
as homesteads. 

Every person who is the actual head of a family, and 
every single man over eighteen years of age, may preempt 
one quarter of a section (160 acres), provided that person 
is a British subject, or has declared his intention to be- 
come such. When making the entry for this preemption, 
a fee of $10 must be paid, and if the preemptor complies 
with the regulations, to be mentioned presently, this is 
the only money payment required for a bona fide home- 
stead entry. The provision that the applicant for such 
entry must be the sole head of a family, manifestly 
permits a widow, having minor children of her own 
dependent upon her for their support, to take up a 
quarter section. 

The application for this homestead entry is supposed 
to be made in person at the local Land Ofhce, principal 
or subordinate. These offices are established through- 
out the three provinces so numerously as to obviate the 
necessity for travelKng any great distance: this is a 
most important consideration. An entry by proxy, 
upon certain Hberal conditions, may be made by the 
father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or sister of the 
intending homesteader. Provision is also made for 
the preliminary entry to be forwarded by telegram, in 



l68 THE COMING CANADA 

case of urgency, the necessary formalities being attended 
to in person later on. 

The homesteader acquires no title to his land at once, 
and he may not dispose of his rights. Cancellation of 
the entry is provided for in certain circumstances and 
upon completing proper formalities. The preemptor 
gets a patent, conferring absolute rights in fee simple, 
when he has held the homestead for his own exclusive 
use (or as the head of a family) for three consecutive 
years from the date of the original entry; provided he 
has resided thereon at least six months in each of those 
three years, or from the date when he commenced his 
residence; provided, also, that he has erected a habit- 
able house on the quarter section; provided, also, that 
he has cultivated so much of the land each year as is 
satisfactory to the Minister of the Interior, the fact 
being determined by duly appointed inspectors; and 
provided, finally, that he is then actually a British 
subject. 

Actual residence upon this particular quarter section 
is waived in case the homesteader has been residing on 
a farm of at least eighty acres in compact area, which is 
within nine miles of his homestead. Such farm must 
have been owned and occupied by himself, or by his 
father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister. This 
liberal provision secures to a purchaser of a farm his 
homestead rights, and it also permits a newcomer to 
make his home temporarily with relatives. There are 
some districts, where the population is sparse or the 
preemptions not numerous, in which a homesteader may 
secure another quarter section of pubHc land adjoining 



THE LURE OF CANADA 169 

his homestead, upon payment of $3.00 per acre. But 
to secure this privilege, certain duties are required: the 
applicant must complete the formalities required to 
secure a patent (title) for his original homestead, before 
a deed for the additional quarter section is given him, 
although he may enter upon possession thereof; he must 
have resided on his homestead or on the additional pre- 
emption for at least six months of each six years subse- 
quent to the date of entry upon his original homestead; 
in addition to the cultivation requirements upon his 
actual homestead, he must have cultivated fifty other 
acres satisfactorily, either on his homestead or on the 
preemption. 

Furthermore, in certain districts and in particular 
circumstances, a homesteader may obtain a purchased 
homestead, upon pa3niient of $3.00 per acre. In this 
case, the specific duties required are: residence upon the 
quarter section so entered for six months in each of three 
years subsequent to the date of such entry; cultivating 
fifty acres thereof in a satisfactory manner; erecting a 
house of the value of at least three hundred dollars 
thereon. This, it will be understood, permits of an alien 
acquiring a homestead upon very favourable terms. 
In the case of a British subject, he may secure the privi- 
lege of a purchased homestead provided he resides on 
his patented homestead, within nine miles of the pur- 
chased one. 

By a combination of all these methods of acquiring 
public lands, it is a simple matter to secure an estate of 
640 acres, or one full section. Thus it will be seen the 
first lure to the intended settler is made as attractive as 



lyo THE COMING CANADA 

possible, in that the possession of a farm is provided for 
upon easy terms. Before leaving this subject, however, 
it is pleasing to say that those settlers who have been 
in residence long enough to secure their patents, have 
built their residences and farm buildings, and become 
forehanded through successful cultivation, are always 
most kind in extending a helping hand to the new- 
comers who are without the ready cash to purchase 
building material, implements, and live stock immedi- 
ately required. I have known of many such cases of 
disinterested kindness in Alberta province, in the 
neighbourhood of Calgary and Edmonton. In an 
emigrants' sleeping car on the Canadian Pacific Rail- 
way, I once found a number of Welsh people who were 
going to settle north of Regina and Moosejaw, Saskat- 
chewan Province. Not one family head had sufficient 
ready money to do more than pay the preHminary fee 
for homestead entry and keep souls and bodies together 
for perhaps a year. But the man who was in charge 
of the party, himself an old settler, assured me that 
nobody would come to want; because building materials, 
farming implements, seed, etc., could he had on credit 
and upon reasonable terms when he and other home- 
steaders who had received their patents, stood security. 
Every resident would lend a hand to put up houses for 
the newcomers, who, until their own dweUings were 
ready, would be cared for on the established ranches and 
farms. 

A specific case or two will be interesting, and I give 
them in Mr. Frank Yeigh's words,* although I have 

* Op. ciu 



THE LURE OE CANADA 171 

myself heard these very same stories from acquaintances 
in Canada. ''In the year 1883 a young man took up 
a homestead not far from the southern boundary of 
Manitoba. This was in the early days of the province, 
when opportunities were not so numerous as now, and 
wheat brought only forty cents a bushel, compared with 
nearly three times that price to-day. After locating 
his quarter section and paying the land fee, the settler 
in question had scarcely a cent left. By working for 
a neighbouring farmer, enough money was earned to 
build a shack and buy a supply of provisions. During 
the first year, five acres of land were broken, a neigh- 
bour's horses being borrowed for the task. The second 
year the would-be farmer was able to buy a yoke of 
oxen, working during the summer for the same farmer. 
By the third year, however, he put in all his time on his 
own homestead; at the end of the year his patent was 
secured and he thus started on a career of independence. 
Now the settler is worth seventy-five thousand dollars, 
all made on his quarter section homestead that cost 
him originally but the ten dollar Government fee. 
Essential, however, to his success was a determination 
to win, a pluck that overcame obstacles and a spirit 
that refused to be daunted by disappointments and 
discouragements. This type of settler will always win 
a competence in Western Canada." 

Another young man settled in the Riding Mountain 
district, Manitoba. "Neighbours assisted in the erec- 
tion of the Httle structures that did duty as house and 
barn for the first season, for the settler in this case was 
practically penniless, besides carrying the burden of a 



172 THE COMING CANADA 

large and growing family. The successive years in- 
volved struggle and endurance, but happily in ever- 
lessening degree, until prosperity had fully come, making 
him the owner of six hundred and forty acres of choice 
land and a splendid brick house with suitable outbuild- 
ings, a property valued at twenty-five thousand dollars. 
One of the daughters has won honours in a Western 
college, which she entered from the Httle prairie pubhc 
school. Before this particular homesteader came to 
Canada, he was a huckster in an English city, where he 
gained a most precarious living, with absolutely no pros- 
pects for an improved condition. But possessing the 
qualities of frugality, industry, and perseverance, and 
with no capital except health and strength, yet having 
a determination to win out, he has proved what is within 
the range of possibility for others similarly situated." 
Twenty-five or thirty years ago, it was exceedingly 
difficult and expensive to get building materials to these 
prairie farms in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and the 
Land office authorities were very liberal in construing 
the regulations defining the habitations. Very often 
the first residence was a sod-covered roof and the house 
mostly below the surface of the ground. This, however, 
rarely served after the first year, during which the settler 
almost always managed to get enough lumber to build 
a rough shack for himself and family, if he had one. 
As human beings can, when needs must, better put up 
with rough quarters than will farm animals, the settler 
often seemed to give first thought to housing comfort- 
ably his span of horses or yoke of oxen. When the three 
years were passed and he came into possession of his 



THE LURE OF CANADA 1 73 

patent, he at once had an asset upon which to raise 
needed funds. The banks in these cases have always 
been extremely liberal, and their consideration has been 
rewarded with prosperity; not only for themselves, but 
in the rapid development of the country. The astonish- 
ing number of branch banks throughout the agricultural 
sections testifies not alone to the need of faciHties for 
moving the crops, but equally to a determination to 
help the development in every way. 

The right type of settler will demand something more 
than his quarter section of land, his residence and farm 
buildings, his live stock, and his implements. He will 
think of his children's future; and throughout these 
agricultural provinces (as in Canada almost everywhere) 
ample provision is made for education. There is but 
one school system in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and 
Alberta, that of the free pubUc schools. All these 
schools are free to all children, whether their parents 
are British subjects or not, between the ages of five and 
fifteen. Attendance is not yet absolutely compulsory, 
yet very few heads of families ever neglect to avail them- 
selves of the great privileges offered their children. In 
some localities where there are colonies of peasants who 
do not speak EngHsh, the Hmit of age is conveniently 
stretched to let older children, and even their parents, 
get a conversational acquaintance with that tongue. 

In no settled district is the school house more than a 
mile or a mile and a half from the home, for the school 
laws provide that a new school district shall be formed 
wherever eight or ten children are unprovided with 
pubHc school advantages. In many districts where 



174 THE COMING CANADA 

farms are farther apart, an omnibus or wagon of some 
kind is sent around every school day to gather up the 
boys and girls, and at the close of school, whether it be 
one long session or two short ones with noon intermis- 
sion, the pupils are taken back home. In Manitoba, 
private schools, business colleges, and pubhc Hbraries 
are numerous, and they are quite as well equipped as are 
those to be found in any similar communities. Of this 
province specifically I purpose writing at some length 
in a later chapter. 

Until about 1900 the settlements in Saskatchewan 
Province were practically restricted to the belt varying 
from fifteen to twenty-five miles in width along the 
main Hne of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was 
built through this region in 1882. As the land grant 
gave each alternate section to the railway — the width 
of the belt varying according to the character of the 
country and the ease or difficulty of construction — it 
was necessary to survey this broad belt in order to 
determine the railway sections. For this reason it 
came to pass that settlers could make their choice of 
homesteads definite and get title promptly, as could not 
be done on the unsurveyed lands. Government sur- 
veys subsequently were extended into other districts 
and at present about one-third of the province, from the 
International Boundary northward, is now surveyed. 
In the southeastern quarter of the province practically 
all the land has been taken up either by homesteaders 
or by purchasers of railway lands. North of the first 
section, surveys have been gradually extended, and there 
are now thousands of homesteads on arable land avail- 



THE LURE OF CANADA 175 

able for entry. The rapid development of railways — 
trunk Knes or feeders — has invariably preceded the 
coming in of settlers, and it has been aptly said that 
settlement invariably proceeds from railway lines Kke 
the unrolling of a carpet. Lumber is readily procurable 
and coal is mined in abundance in the southern part of 
the province. It is claimed that Saskatchewan, with its 
broad acres of prairie in the south and its prairies with 
their park-like homesteads in the central portion, has 
within its borders the greatest wheat-producing area of 
the Dominion. Wheat and beef-cattle are exported. 
Horses are not yet so numerous as to leave a surplus 
after the home demand is supplied; because a team is 
one of the first requirements of the new settler. Other 
farm products are required for local consumption and 
settlers find a ready market for anything they raise. 
Saskatchewan has an area of 250,650 square miles, 
8,318 square miles being water surface, for the northern 
half abounds in lakes and rivers. This northern section 
is not yet very well known, and its systematic survey 
must naturally be a slow process. There are great 
forests and open glades, and it is the home of fur-bearing 
animals. The hunting of these gives sport to many, as 
well as some wealth to those who prefer a hunter's life. 
Alberta Province is bounded on the south by the 
United States; its eastern boundary is the iioth meridian 
of longitude west from Greenwich (in common with 
Saskatchewan); its northern boundary is the 60th 
parallel of latitude, where it marches with the North 
West Territory; and its western boundary is the crest 
of the main range of the Rocky Mountains from the 



176 THE COMING CANADA 

International Boundary till that crest intersects the 
1 20th meridian, W., which it follows to the 60th parallel. 
The whole of the western boundary marches with 
British Columbia. This province is naturally con- 
sidered in three great belts or districts, southern, central, 
and northern. The first two are of interest to the settler, 
the southern prairie section especially. This southern 
belt, from the United States to about one hundred miles 
north of Calgary, was a great ranching country. For 
a long time farming could not be considered sufficiently 
safe to induce agricultural settlers because the rainfall 
is light. But since great irrigating ditches have been 
constructed, bringing an abundance of water from the 
mountain streams, farming has increased amazingly. 
The soil, when irrigated, yields splendid crops of grains 
and vegetables of all kinds. The central belt is particu- 
larly attractive to settlers who contemplate mixed or 
general farming. Northern Alberta is undoubtedly a 
land of great possibilities. Each year is bringing evi- 
dence that agriculture and stock raising can be success- 
fully carried on, probably all the way to the northern 
boundary. The area of Alberta is 253,540 square miles. 
These three provinces constitute the section to which 
the Dominion Government is directing its special atten- 
tion and making every effort to attract settlers. Experi- 
mental farms are estabUshed at numerous points, and 
every information that they are able to impart is at 
the service of settlers, without fee. Somewhat similar 
effort on the part of the Central Government is being 
made to show settlers that British Columbia possesses 
for them great opportunities. 



CHAPTER XIII 
DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 

NO new country ever felt more promptly the urgent 
necessity for railway facilities than Canada did 
after that modern method of transportation became 
available in the middle of the last century. As soon as 
the development of the wonderful resources in forests, 
mines, agricultural lands, and other productive indus- 
tries had passed beyond the narrow strips which border 
the St. Lawrence River and fringe the easternmost of 
the Great Lakes, became known, this necessity asserted 
itself with an insistence which could not be disregarded. 

Although Canada is possessed of a wonderful system 
of internal waterways, rivers and lakes — and these 
natural reservoirs in Canada are estimated to represent 
fully one-half of all the fresh water in the world — yet 
these same promptly proved to be inadequate for the 
traffic which immediately developed upon the opening 
up of the wonderful western section of the Dominion. 
Besides, although the rivers may be broad and deep and 
while the lakes seem to afford ample transportation 
facilities, yet these waterways are rendered unavailable 
for several months because of ice, and that, too, just at 
the time when much of the grain crop is seeking an 
outlet to deep water. 

The Canadian captains of industry promptly realised 



178 THE COMING CANADA 

that this new method of transportation — the steam 
railway — was to be of incalculable benefit to them, and 
as early as 1835 a charter for a short line was granted; 
while during the succeeding decade a good many other 
short lines were so seriously considered that their possi- 
ble promoters asked for legislative permission to build. 
But the economic conditions were unsettled and the 
rebellion of 1837, which has already been mentioned, 
had a deterrent effect, so that in 1850 there were but 
fifty-five miles of railway in all Canada, while now there 
are over thirty thousand miles and the annual increase 
in trackage is measured by the thousand miles or more. 
In 1850, when railway construction really began 
seriously, it was the Northern Railway, connecting 
Lakes Huron and Ontario, that was first built. In 
1852 the Grand Trunk Railway was incorporated — 
under British charter — and the Hon. Sir Francis Hincks, 
then Prime Minister and Inspector-General of Canada 
(as the Minister of Finance was then called), that same 
year went to England to urge the granting of a guarantee 
to the Intercolonial Railway. He made arrangements 
with the Peto, Brassey, Betts, and Jackson Company, 
contractors and builders, which eventually brought 
about the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway, 
1,100 miles of single-track line, with necessary sidings, 
and the Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence at Mon- 
treal. The railway itself was completed and opened 
for traffic in 1855; the Victoria Bridge was used for the 
first time in i860, when it was described by the Ameri- 
can Consul at Montreal as "the greatest work of the 
age." The actual task, both as to building the railway 



DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 1 79 

and throwing the bridge across the river, is a monument 
to the skill and energy of Thomas Brassey, who planned 
and directed the entire enterprise, which was super- 
intended by Robert Stephenson. 

A most appalHng commentary upon the construction 
methods of that time is found in a comparison of the 
cost of that Grand Trunk bridge and another, only a 
few miles farther up stream, which was built long after 
for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Both serve precisely 
the same purpose and one does not seem to be any better 
than the other; yet the Grand Trunk's cost $6,300,000, 
while the Canadian Pacific's was built for less than 
$1,000,000. Those first Canadian railways were built 
by British engineers who brought into the new world 
precisely the same methods as they and their fellow 
craftsmen had followed in laying railways between the 
populous cities of Great Britain. Those engineers were 
without an inkling of what were the needs of the sparsely 
populated regions of the New World, where it was far 
more important to be able to haul freight cheaply than 
it was to carry passengers quickly and comfortably. 
Those British constructors built their lines permanently, 
but it was done at an expense which prevented the 
shareholders seeing any return for their investment in 
the way of dividends for many years. 

While the Grand Trunk was under construction, the 
main line of the Great Western Railway was opened for 
traffic, January, 1854, and that company continued to 
build until it had 360 miles of track. These larger 
enterprises and a number of smaller ones brought up 
the total railway mileage to about 2,500 when the 



l8o THE COMING CANADA 

Dominion of Canada was created in 1867. Other short 
lines, here and there, were built with local capital helped 
out by British funds; but I fancy that practically all 
the railways in Upper and Lower Canada that were 
opened before the consolidation of the Dominion are 
now to be found in the Grand Trunk system. 

As soon as the Dominion was an accomplished fact, 
it became advisable, if not absolutely essential, that the 
maritime provinces should no longer be cut off from 
the rest of Canada, even if the linking up necessitated the 
building of a railway through what was then a trackless 
wilderness. There was danger that those outlying 
units of the Dominion, unless tied firmly by bands of 
iron to the larger provinces, might be compelled through 
force of circumstances to ally themselves with the 
United States. The Trent affair of 1861; the numerous 
episodes connected with the Confederate privateers, and 
other unpleasant matters, threatened to bring about 
hostilities between Americans and Britons. If that had 
occurred, undoubtedly the scene of the land battles 
would have been laid in Canada, and almost certainly 
the already semi-detached maritime provinces would 
have been cut off from the Dominion. 

The Imperial British Government, when all these 
dangers had been demonstrated and conditions clearly 
explained, granted a loan of the three million pounds 
sterling needed to build the Intercolonial Railway, from 
the St. Lawrence River, at Montreal, to HaHfax, Nova 
Scotia, with branches to St. John, New Brunswick, and 
North Sydney, Cape Breton Island, as well as the Prince 
Edward Island Railway, It was stipulated that the 



DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS l8l 

line should follow a strategic route. It must be laid 
sufficiently far from the International Boundary to 
ensure reasonable freedom from a sudden raid by Ameri- 
cans in case hostilities broke out. 

As a financial investment this railway has not yet 
been remunerative, and as a commercial or industrial 
enterprise it is only of recent years that it has promised 
to be successful. Undoubtedly both imperial and 
federal poHtics affected it adversely; yet it must be 
remembered that it was built for a specific purpose which 
has been achieved, and it gave the Dominion Govern- 
ment at Ottawa access to seaports which are open all 
the year round, and that, too, across its own territory. 

The two chief problems which faced the Dominion 
Cabinets for the first twenty years of their official exist- 
ence, were the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Tariff. 
This combination emphasised a very curious state of 
affairs both poHtically and economically. The advo- 
cates of the railway (which was to be built, it will be 
remembered, in fulfilment of a promise to British 
Columbia) were supposed to be Conservatives and 
Protectionists; and they were under the leadership of 
Sir John Macdonald, Prime Minister 1857-58, 1868-73, 
and 1878-91. Yet they were contending for a most 
progressive matter and to accompHsh their purpose they 
were wilHng to open the gates sufficiently to let in from 
the United States material and suppHes for the railway 
free of duty. The Liberals, who were cautiously opposed 
to any hasty action as regards the transcontinental rail- 
way, were then Free Traders. 

To anticipate a little, because of direct bearing upon 



l82 THE COMING CANADA 

the subject now under consideration, I quote from a 
manifesto which Sir John addressed to the Electors of 
Canada, February 7, 1891, when there seemed to be 
danger of his political discomfiture, but not of his death, 
which occurred on the 6th of the following June. After 
touching upon the prosperity which followed the inaugu- 
ration of Protection, or the National Policy as the Con- 
servatives called it, as against the United States, and 
the Government's ability to carry out the promise to 
British Columbia, he said: ''To that end we undertook 
the stupendous work, the Canadian Pacific Railway, 
undeterred by the pessimistic views of our opponents; 
nay, in spite of strenuous and even indignant opposition, 
we pushed forward that great enterprise through the 
wilderness north of Lake Superior, across the western 
prairies, over the Rocky Mountains, to the shores of 
the Pacific, with such inflexible resolution that in seven 
years after the assumption of office by the present 
Administration the dream of our public men was an 
accomplished fact, and I myself experienced the proud 
satisfaction of looking hack from the steps of my car 
upon the Rocky Mountains framing the eastern sky. 
The Canadian Pacific Railway now extends from ocean 
to ocean, opening up and developing the country at a 
marvellous rate, and forming an Imperial highway to 
the East over which the trade of the Indies is destined 
to reach the markets of Europe." 

In 1870, the great North West Territories were dis- 
posed of by the Hudson's Bay Company, as has been 
stated, and the extreme southeastern portion thereof 
came into the Dominion as the Province of Manitoba. 



DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 183 

A year later British Columbia, which had long been a 
province with an organised government, although very 
sparsely settled by white men at least, agreed to Ksten 
to Dominion overtures, provided an assurance was given 
that a railway should be speedily built to the Pacific 
coast. The promise was given and British Columbia 
was admitted; but the delay which politics and various 
other causes made inevitable, so disgusted the people of 
the Pacific province that they threatened to secede from 
the Dominion because of broken promises. 

No thought seems to have been given by the British 
Columbians to what seemed at the time, to all but the 
most enthusiastic, a mad undertaking. It meant 700 
miles through the rocky, uninhabited wilderness which 
lay between Montreal and Winnipeg and where — as 
has already been told — the engineering difhculties were 
colossal and the construction frightfully expensive. 
After that came 800 miles across prairies where, at the 
time, there were practically no settlements and nothing 
upon which the railway administration could depend 
for patronage; and then were the hundreds of miles 
through the Rockies, the Selkirks, and other mountain 
ranges almost to the water's edge on the Pacific. For 
it must be borne in mind that this railway had to be 
built far enough from the International Boundary to 
give it protection as a military and strategic line. 

The Canadian Pacific Railway became the chief topic 
of conversation throughout Eastern Canada, and it 
would be untrue to say that the discussion did not 
bring out some political scandals; but they belong in 
past history and are not pertinent to the Coming Canada. 



184 THE COMING CANADA 

On October 21, 1880, a contract was signed for the 
construction of this railway, but it was not practicable 
to begin active work for several months. On the 2nd 
of May, 1881, the first sod was turned and on the 7th of 
November, 1885, the last spike was driven in what was 
then, and which is even now, the only absolutely trans- 
continental railway in America, north of the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec. On the 13th of January, 1886, the 
first through train left Montreal for Port Moody, which 
place was, for a short time, the western terminus; the 
line was soon extended to Vancouver. 

As we look back upon the history of that remarkable 
enterprise, we cannot but be much impressed by the 
imwavering faith of the men who gave their fortunes 
to build the line and their unstinted labour to carry their 
plans to success. Sir John Macdonald, who had been 
the prime mover in bringing about Federation, that is 
the Dominion of Canada, was also a champion of the 
Canadian Pacific Railway. With him were associated 
two men who were afterwards raised to the British 
peerage as Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal and Lord 
Mountstephen; these three were the Hfe and soul of the 
enterprise. Sir John lived just long enough to see the 
work completed, for he died in 1891. Strathcona and 
Mountstephen have not only seen their pet prosper and 
pay good dividends, for the shares were raised to a ten 
per cent, dividend basis in January, 191 1; but they have 
realised, long ago, that the development of the Domin- 
ion, certainly stimulated by the Canadian Pacific, has 
gone beyond the capacity of one transcontinental rail- 
way system to supply its needs. 



DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 185 

This corporation has many advantages. Its capitali- 
sation is less, in proportion to the physical valuation of 
its properties, than that of any other well-known rail- 
way and steamship system in the world. It has been 
fortunate (but in this it is not remarkable as regards all 
the great railway systems of Canada) from the very 
beginning in having men to control its interests who 
were and are conspicuous for energy, integrity and 
abihty. It is true that the breath of slander has not 
absolutely spared the promoters of this great enterprise; 
but time showed that the allegations had no substantial 
foundation in fact, and the future of the Canadian Pacific 
is very bright. It is prosperous now and will doubtless 
continue to be so as the Coming Canada advances along 
the pathway which is manifestly marked out for it. 
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 191 2, the gross 
earnings were $123,319,541.23; the working expenses, 
$80,021,298.40. 

The Grand Trunk Railway was, in the early sixties 
of the last century and for many years, satisfied to Hmit 
its expansion to the older regions of Quebec, Ontario, 
the Maritime Provinces, and to connections with Ameri- 
can lines. It was not very long, however, until the 
promise of remuneration induced the directors to extend 
their system westward in Canada itself. Beyond 
Toronto, the lines of this corporation come under the 
management of a semi-independent board, the Grand 
Trunk Pacific. Its lines, with those of the Canadian 
Pacific and the Canadian Northern, form a network 
with a mesh so fine as to cause amazement when one 
remembers that the pioneer railway line in this region 



l86 THE COMING CANADA 

was opened for traffic only in 1886. The whole district 
east of the Rocky Mountains and south of the advanced 
line of settlements is already well supplied with rail- 
way facihties. The Grand Trunk Pacific will cross the 
Rockies through the Yellow Head Pass, 200 miles north 
of the Canadian Pacific, and at a much less altitude 
than that to which the latter climbs. Once through the 
mountains, the Grand Trunk bears northwestward 
through the centre of British Columbia to the Pacific 
Ocean at Prince Rupert, 400 miles north of Vancouver; 
but, due to the influence of the Pacific currents, not 
likely to be inconvenienced by ice more than is Van- 
couver. 

At present this region is truly a rugged wilderness, 
where there are plenty of bears, mountain sheep, moose, 
wapiti, and other big game to attract the sportsman. 
Within the sphere of the Grand Trunk Pacific's influence, 
the mountains are not quite so high as are the loftiest 
peaks of the Swiss Alps. In the extreme northwestern 
part of this province, British Columbia, there are moun- 
tains rising to 19,000 feet, and that section is one where 
the desolation and absence of human life strike the occa- 
sional lone visitor most impressively. If history repeats 
itself, it will be but a few years before even that desola- 
tion will have been succeeded by a measure of human 
life and activities which shall transform it completely. 

The Grand Tnmk receipts for i860, the first year 
after the completion of the line as originally contemplated 
were £682,658, say $3,304,164. For the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 191 2, the gross receipts were $3,834,- 
328.19 and the working expenses $2,793,285.19. 



DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 187 

The Grand Trunk Pacific is treated under two great 
divisions, eastern and western. The former, Moncton, 
N. B., to Winnipeg, 1800 miles; the second, Winnipeg 
to Prince Rupert, 1756 miles. The main line of the 
eastern division is being built by the Dominion Govern- 
ment and will be leased to the company for fifty years; 
all branch lines of this division are to be constructed by 
the lessees. The western division is being built by the 
company, the Dominion government guaranteeing first 
mortgage bonds to the amount of $13,000 per mile in 
the prairie section and for three-quarters of the actual 
cost in the mountain section; that is, from the eastern 
foot of the Rockies through to Prince Rupert. Inas- 
much as this company is still being operated under con- 
struction account, there are, of course, no statistics of 
gross receipts and expenses to give. 

There is but one other railway system in the Domin- 
ion to which attention need be given here. That is 
the Canadian Northern, for I look upon the Inter- 
colonial as a government enterprise whose fate is not 
directly dependent upon public patronage. The Cana- 
dian Northern, which is to-day a great railway in a 
great country, had a very humble beginning. In 1889 
the Dominion Parliament granted a charter for the 
construction of ''The Lake Manitoba Railway and 
Canal Company." As the original grantees had been 
unable to do anything with their charter, its rights and 
privileges were transferred to a small company of 
optimists, and from that small beginning has grown what 
is to-day, in mileage and scope, the fourth (if we separate 
the Grand Trunk and the G. T. Pacific) railway system 



l88 THE COMING CANADA 

of the Dominion. It is not necessary to follow the 
details of an interesting narrative which tells of the 
vicissitudes of this company, since they are matters of 
the past and we are concerned with the present and the 
future. In 1897 the first link of the Canadian Northern's 
chain was forged. It was a little line from Gladstone 
to Dauphin, 85 miles, in Manitoba Province; and this 
little was accompKshed only with the greatest difhculty. 
Had not the provincial legislature guaranteed the bonds, 
it is certain they would not have been sold in London, 
and it was impossible to float them in Canada or the 
United States. In 1901, the first year of this 20th 
century, and only four years after that modest begin- 
ning, the Canadian Northern had 1200 miles of Kne in 
operation. On the 30th of June, 191 2, it owned and 
operated, including leased Hnes, 4316 miles. 

As the name implies, it is to the purpose mainly of 
developing the prairie and northern regions of the 
Dominion that this corporation is directing its energies, 
and a glance at the map shows how much has already 
been done; although the scope has spread into the 
provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and 
Alberta, the territory of Keewatin, and the State of 
Minnesota, Lake Superior is joined to Hudson Bay (or 
will be in a short time), and the three central provinces 
of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta are served 
from east to west and far towards the north. This 
last fact has contradicted absolutely the contention 
that a railway which is virtually restricted to the prairies 
cannot be considered a profitable investment. 

But a few years ago, the Vice-President of this com- 



DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 189 

pany made public some statements which showed that 
the Canadian Northern's earning power had steadily- 
increased with expansion in just that discredited region. 
Some 2500 miles of lines west of the Great Lakes and 
Lake Winnipeg had been guaranteed by either the 
Dominion or Provincial governments; but, he declared 
— and his declaration seems to have been verified by 
facts — "no one of those Governments had, or ever 
would have, to pay a dollar on account of those arrange- 
ments." 

The confidence of Canadians in the management of 
the various railways which have been built, in the 
prairie and mountain sections especially, is admirably 
illustrated by the experience of the Canadian Northern: 
in 1909 the Central and Provincial governments united 
in granting two million acres of land, the proceeds of 
which were to be used in constructing a railway between 
Sudbury and Port Arthur. In the same year the Prov- 
ince of Saskatchewan gave a guarantee of $13,000 a mile 
for the construction of 11 75 miles of main line and 
feeders, the work to be finished in three years. Alberta 
Province gave a similar guarantee for 920 miles of the 
same sort. Manitoba guaranteed $30,000 per mile 
for 210 miles, the work being considerably more difficult 
and expensive. This guaranteed work has all been 
completed and a good deal besides. 

In British Columbia, the Dominion government has 
agreed to guarantee bonds to the amount of $21,000,000 
for 600 miles of line from the crest of the Rockies, in 
Yellow Head Pass, by way of Vancouver (ferry to 
Victoria) to Nanaimo on the western shore of Vancouver 



190 THE COMING CANADA 

Island. With this work carried out and the Nova 
Scotia lines connected with the main system at Quebec, 
a third ocean to ocean railway will be opened in Canada. 

The Canadian Northern owns two or three large 
steamers which are running regularly between Bristol, 
England, and Halifax and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. 
The management has declared that just as soon as this 
company is prepared to give railway service to the 
Pacific coast, it will launch first-class steamships, equal 
— all things being considered — to anything afloat on 
either the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. Although 
simply astonishing, yet the following figures have been 
audited by the Dominion government and may be 
depended upon impKcitly: on June 30, 191 2, the 
Canadian Northern's gross earnings for the preceding 
year were $20,860,093.63; the operating expenses 
$14,979,048.52. In 1897 the Gladstone-Dauphin line, 
the nucleus of the company, earned $60,000. 

Of the two hundred odd railway companies which 
have received charters, more than one-half have been 
amalgamated with one or another of the great systems, 
the Grand Trunk, the Intercolonial, the Canadian Pacific, 
the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Canadian Northern. 
There seeems to be no objection to one company acquir- 
ing competing lines; but this apparent disposition to 
facilitate the monopoly of great railway systems is not 
likely to bring disaster, for the Dominion and Provincial 
legislatures are so constantly on the watch and are 
armed with such disciphnary power — backed by means 
to enforce mandates — that conditions can hardly 
become subversive of pubUc rights. 



DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS I9I 

In closing this chapter, I refer to an article in the 
Toronto News for March 31, 191 1, giving the following 
reasons for the advance in Canadian Pacific Railway 
Company's shares, and other things being equal, a 
similar advance in Canadian railways generally. First, 
the company has advanced its dividend rate from seven 
to ten per cent. Second, the company's possessions in 
lands and other property are enormously valuable. 
Third, the company is undisturbed by the pursuit of 
American courts and legislatures to which United States 
railways are subjected. Fourth, these conditions have 
led to a gradual transfer of investors' money from United 
States railways to Canadian Pacific. 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 

IT is no doubt correct to say that the St. Lawrence 
begins at Kingston where the shores of Lake Ontario 
draw in and a broad river is born; but there are many 
miles to be travelled westward before we come to the 
little lakes, Bear's Head, whence issues Embarrassment 
River, and Beaver Lake, the apparent source of the 
Saint Louis River, in the State of Minnesota: these 
are the actual beginnings of the St. Lawrence Basin. 
In that section of Minnesota, it is evidently a difficult 
matter for a drop of rain water to determine whether 
it will go east or north. Separated by a ridge so low as 
scarcely to be perceptible, are streams which flow in 
exactly opposite directions: on the east they run south 
until they bend and mingle with others making their 
way into Lake Superior: on the west and but a few rods 
away, they take a northerly course, reach Vermilion 
Lake and thereafter are a part of the Hudson Bay Basin. 
It is there we should look for the beginning of the St. 
Lawrence Basin and its end in Labrador, on the north 
side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Gaspe Peninsula 
on the south. 

If we were to measure from the entrance to the Straits 
of Belle Isle, which separate Newfoundland from Lab- 
rador, and take the middle of the true St. Lawrence 



GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 193 

River, then follow the middle of Lakes Ontario, Erie, 
Huron, and Superior, up the Httle St. Louis River to 
its very source, we should have an approximate length 
of the St. Lawrence Basin of something like three thou- 
sand miles. But it is not necessary to be so precise as 
that. 

Within the great St. Lawrence Basin, taking the phrase 
in this most liberal sense, there are physical variations 
so numerous as to be indescribable. At its remotest 
beginning this great basin is in a region which geologists 
describe as having sunk so rapidly from its former 
elevation that the animals had to skurry away to higher 
lands to save themselves from being caught in swamps 
and tamarack bogs. Of course this is a bit of extrava- 
gance, yet it is geologically certain that not very long 
ago Minnesota was higher than it now is; and it is true 
also that only in the northern section have the rocks 
been hard enough and sufhciently high to resist the 
rubbing away which has converted so much of the rest 
of the state into the level that is generally conspicuous. 
The forests of Minnesota must have been grand at one 
time, or until the state dropped from being the third 
in output of lumber to fifth. The subsiding and wear- 
ing away which have just been mentioned were not so 
absolute as might be inferred, because Minnesota's 
position as a contributor to the iron ore supply of North 
America is a most important one, and this fact gives to 
the very beginning of the St. Lawrence Basin a place in 
the economics of Canada as well as the United States. 

I must, for several reasons, keep myself to the Canadian 
side of the great Basin. When the little St. Louis River 



194 THE COMING CANADA 

has emptied itself into Lake Superior near Duluth, we 
pass along the northern shore of the lake and having 
left the United States, we presently come to two towns, 
Fort WiUiam and Port Arthur, which are the termini 
of several railways, and they are, from the beginning 
of harvest until the frost has closed navigation on the 
lakes, among the greatest grain shipping ports in the 
world. Back of them, or near them, are famous lakes, 
the Lake of the Woods and Nipigon, and from the former 
there is a chain of waterways which make the line that 
separates the St. Lawrence and Hudson Bay basins very 
faint indeed. 

But soon the north shore of Lake Superior takes on 
a vastly different appearance as we come to the stern, 
dark, forbidding Laurentian rocks, through which the 
railway lines have been bored with infinite trouble and 
enormous expense: as the trains pass along this section 
the reverberation is deafening. When the Laurentians 
are passed and the eastern part of Ontario Province is 
reached, again it is apparent that the Hne of demarcation 
between the St. Lawrence and Hudson Bay basins is 
not at all sharply drawn. There are several streams 
which may be ascended in canoes almost to their head- 
waters; and when such navigation becomes no longer 
possible, there is but a short portage to some other 
stream which carries the canoe down — although north- 
w^ard — to James Bay. 

In the province of Quebec the St. Lawrence Basin 
widens at first very much, and the land is generally 
level, although not prairie-like in its smoothness. Now, 
the basin includes both shores of the river which has 




Portage La Loche, Peace River Country, Athabaska 




Potato Crop, Lake La Loche, 56° 30' N. 



GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 195 

grown to be a mighty stream; for at Montreal begins 
the navigation which permits large ocean-going steamers 
to make use of it. I suppose we must conform to 
general usage and say that when we have reached Gaspe 
Peninsula, or certainly Anticosti Island, we have come 
to the eastern end of the St. Lawrence Basin; but as a 
matter of fact all the north shore of the gulf should be 
included in it. 

From the beginning of French occupation until some 
time after the transfer to Great Britain, the civilisation 
of Canada kept so closely to the basin of the St. Law- 
rence, in its restricted sense, that back of a fringe of 
widely separated settlements right on the banks of the 
river up as far as Montreal, there was no European 
population at all. Conditions during this long period 
have aptly been Kkened to the civilisation of the Nile 
valley by the Egyptians from prehistoric times even to 
the present day; and it was truly on the St. Lawrence 
banks that the life of the infant Canada beat. 

I shall mention here an anomalous state of affairs 
which existed for a while in the St. Lawrence Basin 
because of the provisions of what was known as Lord 
Stanley's Act of 1843. Canadian wheat and flour were 
admitted into British ports at a nominal duty. *'This 
made it profitable for Canadians to import from the 
United States grain which was then ground into flour 
in Canada and shipped to the Enghsh market. For this 
trade large mills and storehouses had been built in 
Canada, and a very considerable trade had grown up. 
It was an advantage also to the provinces, since western 
produce gravitated to the St. Lawrence, with a corre- 



196 THE COMING CANADA 

spending increase in canal dues." * But in 1846 the 
British Parhament passed the Imperial Free Trade Act, 
and immediately all those artificial advantages were 
cut awky; many commercial men were ruined; the 
capital invested in mills, etc., was threatened, and the 
merchandise reverted to its natural channels. This is 
but one instance of the vicissitudes of commerce in the 
St. Lawrence Basin. 

The scenery of this great region is of a character 
which tends to increase the scepticism of the reader 
directly as the description is accurate. Going back 
again to the western end of Lake Superior, the coast 
line along the northern shore is generally of the boldest 
character. A most striking object is the Great Palisade. 
This is thought by many to have been, probably, a huge 
detached rock standing alone, when the waters of the 
lake stood at a higher level than they now have. It is 
from nine hundred to a thousand feet high, and the top 
is covered wdth trees. 

As the traveller by steamer passes on towards the east, 
the beauty and wonderful features of the shore continue 
to grow until it becomes difficult for the eyes to take in 
all that is presented. The face of the shattered cHffs 
is often dressed with trees which cling in the most sur- 
prising way; frequently these grow right down to the 
water. Sometimes the precipice is rent from top to 
bottom and a deep, narrow gorge is formed. As the 
steamer slips past one of these ravines, the visitor gets 
a glimpse of a foaming torrent plunging down to the 
lake. The largest of these streams is called Beaver 
* W. L. Grifi&th, The Dominion oj Canada, igii. 



GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 197 

River, Lake county, Minn., and at its mouth is Beaver 
Bay, one of the very few harbours on the north shore. 

At the entrance to Thunder Bay, on which are the 
towns of Port Arthur and Fort William, stands Thunder 
Cape (sometimes called "Thunder Head")? which rises 
sheer to a height of very nearly 1400 feet above the sur- 
face of the lake, and the water at its foot is probably 
deeper than in any other part. It is not surprising that 
the Indians had a wholesome dread of Thunder Cape. 
They gave it a wide berth, for the wind plays mad tricks 
about it, and the dashing of a frail canoe against that 
grim basaltic precipice meant certain death to all on 
board. 

On still farther east comes the river to which the 
Canadians give the name of Nipigon, as well as to the 
lake from which it flows; but some who Uke to be very 
precise in their terminology and who, not improperly 
it must be admitted, contend that if an Indian name is 
to be appropriated it should be the correct one, say that 
this name must be Alemipigon, which means "the lake 
of the myriad rocks." It is an appropriate title, for 
there are almost innumerable small islands scattered 
all over it. In some there are caves, large or small, 
into many of which it is possible to take a canoe; but 
this is rather risky, because when the breeze is strong 
the waves rush in and imperil a birch bark canoe that is 
easily upset or more easily punctured by a projecting 
rock. As the waves rush into these caves they make a 
booming sound which is reverberated from the walls 
and roofs in a most eerie fashion that would fill the 
superstitious Indians with panicky fear. 



198 THE COMING CANADA 

From my own experiences and observations of Lake 
Superior, I am strongly inclined to add my testimony to 
that of Mr. Paul Fountain* when he says: ^'So far as 
I can discover there is very Httle recorded of Superior 
and some of that does not quite agree with my experi- 
ence. For instance, an American writer says that the 
navigation of Superior is not so dangerous as that of 
the other great lakes, and says that there is more 'sea- 
room ' here than in the other lakes. I can say, from my 
experience, that this is not correct. Superior is cer- 
tainly by far the largest of the five great lakes, but its 
larger islands are so placed that there is less actual 
sea-room, as understood by sailors, than in either 
Michigan or Huron. As to storms, they are as violent, 
but I think not more so, as in any of the other lakes; 
that they are more frequent I am sure. As I have 
already said, I do not think that dangerous gales are ever 
absent, in winter time, from some part of the lake." 
Besides Thunder Cape, there are a number of cliffs on 
the north shore of Lake Superior which rise, more or 
less sheer, to a thousand feet or over. 

What a change has come in the opinion which Cana- 
dians hold of the country north of the great lakes and 
tributary to them. I can remember when it was all 
considered a sort of desert, certainly uninhabitable 
because assumed to be unproductive; now the rail- 
ways have stations at short intervals and those stations 
are used by farmers who have a surplus to sell. As this 
region becomes better known, it is certain to be more 
and more attractive because of its scenery. 

* The Great Northwest and the Great Lake Region of North America. 



GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN IQQ 

Excluding the Laurentian district, there is very little 
of Ontario Province that is not arable land. When the 
War of American Independence had been fought and 
the United Empire Loyalists betook themselves to 
Canada, it was to the unbroken forest region of bleak 
and unattractive Ontario that a large number of these 
refugees were compelled to go because, with the best 
intentions as to hospitality and generosity, it was 
impossible for the Colonial government to make pro- 
vision for them elsewhere. At that time it was con- 
sidered a great hardship; to-day Ontario is the most 
populous province of the Dominion, yet comparatively 
few of its two and a half or three million souls live 
beyond the St. Lawrence Basin. The peninsula bounded 
by Georgian Bay, Lakes Huron, St. Clair, Erie, and 
Ontario, and the connecting river, is the garden of the 
Dominion. Its scenic attractions are not remarkable, 
but the evidences of thrift, comfort, and culture are 
most pleasingly apparent. Statisticians quite logically 
and very consistently consider this great province, which 
is I GOO miles east and west and a thousand miles north 
and south, in three sections — eastern, western, and 
northern. The eastern embraces all the land between 
the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario; the western lies 
north of Lakes Erie and Huron until Superior is reached. 
Northern Ontario, or as it is sometimes called "New 
Ontario," is all the rest, from the Quebec boundary to 
James Bay, along Keewatin to Manitoba and Minnesota 
and Wisconsin; but of course some of northern Ontario 
is not in the St. Lawrence Basin. It would be somewhat 
difficult to say just what — of the products of land and 



200 THE COMING CANADA 

fresh water — Ontario does not possess; but it is reason- 
ably safe to declare that husbandry is going to continue 
the important enterprise. Yet this occupation must 
be considered in its widest aspect — grain, fruits, 
vegetables, dairy products, live stock — must all be 
included. These, directly or indirectly, require the 
co-operation of all kinds of manufacturers, and as a 
consequence, the cities are in eastern and western 
Ontario. These are, after Montreal and Quebec, the 
largest and most important places in the Dominion — 
Toronto, Hamilton, London, Kingston, Brantford, and 
others. 

The latest report of the Department of Indian Affairs * 
gives the number of Indians in the Dominion as 104,956. 
Of these the 26,393 who are residing on the twenty- 
three reservations allotted to them in Ontario, or culti- 
vating (with official permission) their own farms, are 
the most advanced in every way. A great many of 
them are Chippewas or Ojibbewas; but a good many 
are survivors of the Six Nations, those Iroquois who, 
it will be remembered, were so much dreaded by the 
French and afterwards by the Enghsh, until they were 
effectually crushed in the i8th century. In his annual 
report for 1884, Sir John Macdonald, then premier, 
referring to these Indians, said: "Many of their farms 
are well cultivated and the products of the soil and 
dairy exhibited at their annual agricultural exhibits 
command the admiration of all persons who attend 

*This is for the year ended March 31, 1912, and I am indebted to 
the courtesy of Robert Rogers, Esq., Superintendent General of Indian 
Affairs, and Frank Pedley, Esq., Deputy Superintendent General, for 
a copy. 



GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 20I 

them. Their exliibit of this year was remarkably suc- 
cessful, and they combined with it the centennial cele- 
bration of the grant made to them by the Crown of the 
tract of land of which their reserve forms a part, in 
recognition of their loyalty and valour as practically 
proved on numerous occasions on the field of battle in 
defense of the British flag." It would be an unpardon- 
able omission not to mention these Indians as an ethno- 
logical feature of the St. Lawrence Basin. 

As an indication of the ease with which the St. Law- 
rence and Hudson Bay blend, it may be stated that 
Chapleau, a station on the Canadian Pacific Railway's 
main line, Ontario Province, is a post of the Hudson's 
Bay Company. It is on the waterways which flow 
through Moose River into James Bay. The country 
lying between Lake Superior and James Bay is one of 
the best regions for the trapper, and the Hudson's Bay 
Company is naturally availing itself of all the facilities 
which the railway affords for getting into these hunting 
grounds. 

If the many interesting and attractive islands of the 
Great Lakes which are within the Dominion borders 
are passed by, it is not because they do not appeal to 
tourist and sportsman, but because of the hmitation of 
space. 

When the geographical St. Lawrence River begins, 
at the outlet of Lake Ontario, the Basin narrows very 
much. Here, in the opinion of those who are specially 
seeking the picturesque, commences the most attractive 
part of the valley. The Thousand Islands of the St. 
Lawrence are so well known, either by actual acquaint- 



202 THE COMING CANADA 

ance or by description, that little remains to be said about 
them. It is estimated that there are upwards of Two 
Thousand of these islands and islets, instead of a 
thousand. If we accept the statement of some authori- 
ties, then Wolfe Island, just south of Kingston, is the 
largest, while the smallest are "mere dimples on the 
surface of the broad river and supporting not the least 
verdure on their barren rocks," serving no purpose save 
that of being a danger to navigation. Many of the 
islands are the private property of Canadians or Ameri- 
cans who have their summer homes thereon, and find 
the situation one which contributes much to pleasure 
and recuperation. To the average traveller, the modest 
shooting-box is more in harmony with the surroundings 
than is the would-be grandeur of an imitation of an old- 
world castle. 

The section of the St. Lawrence River, from Lake 
Ontario to the last of the Thousand Islands, was called 
by the Indians Manatoana, "The Garden of the Great 
Spirit." That it is brimming over with legend, need 
not be affirmed.* The last of these islands are a small 
group which is called "The Three Sisters," from their 
resemblance to one another and because they are so 
close together. 

Not far below The Three Sisters the rapids begin: 
the Gallops, Rapides du Plat, the Long Sault, Coteau, 
Cedar, Spht Rock, Cascade, and finishing with Lachine. 
When this last one is passed, the steamboat is at Montreal 
and the most romantic parts of the river are behind the 
tourist. These rapids do not come quite so consecu- 

* Conf. Clifton Johnson, The Picturesque St. Lawrence, chap. II. 



GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 203 

tively as their enumeration might suggest. Between 
some of them are long stretches of clear water and in 
places — such as Lake St. Francis, just below the Long 
Sault, and Lake St. Louis, below the Cascade, the river 
spreads out to such width as to make the names quite 
appropriate. 

It is impossible to do more than give a suggestion of 
the Saguenay River, the lovely Lake St. John from 
which it flows, and the country tributary to lake and 
river. As a freak of Nature, the rift in the black rock 
down which the stream flows is one of the most marvel- 
lous things I know. Probably the most effective brief 
description of the Saguenay is contained in these woods : 
Is it a disappointment, or is it overwhelming? This is 
the question that nearly every visitor asks himself after 
going up to the lake and returning. The answer comes 
slowly but surely and the remembrance of that strange 
river never leaves one; its awful immensity and majesty 
grow forever. One writer contends that there is reason 
to beheve the old Iberian ships were on the Saguenay 
before Christ was born. 

"The cKmax of this awe-inspiring scenery is reached 
at Trinity Bay, where the stupendous height of Cape 
Trinity frowns down upon the intruder, a bare wall of 
limestone that towers nearly two thousand feet into 
mid-air. Its frowning brows, thrust out three hundred 
feet over the water, give the beholder a dread lest it 
tumble upon him. Rent asunder by some far-distant 
glacial power, the great column is really made up of 
three sections so placed that at first sight they look like 
huge steps leading to a mighty flight of stairs, such a 



204 THE COMING CANADA 

ladder as the ancient Titan, warring here against the 
elements, might be expected to climb in his ascent to 
strive with the gods for a supremacy. In marked con- 
trast to this gloomy giant of Three in One — a trinity 
— stands Cape Eternity, within a hundred feet as high 
as its sombre brother, but clothed in a warm vesture 
from foot to crown, and looking calm and peaceful. 
Wrapped in never-fading vestments drawn closely about 
its huge body, well may it defy the storms of this wintry 
region for all time." * Only a mere suggestion of the 
Great St. Lawrence Basin has been given in this chapter; 
for there is not one of its three thousand miles that does 
not offer some attraction. 

* George Waldo Browne, The St. Lawrence River. 



CHAPTER XV 
THE CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 

THE region which I have chosen to include in this 
chapter has, along the International Boundary, 
a broad base which measures something Hke ten degrees 
of longitude, if we include the Cascade Mountains of 
British Columbia, and this may very properly be done. 
It is not always safe to depend upon whatever atlas or 
book of reference comes to one's hand, for informa- 
tion about countries which have not yet been settled 
as to boundaries and fixed as to government. I hap- 
pened, when looking up some data pertinent to this 
chapter, to turn to Col ton's Atlas of the World, bearing 
the date of 1856. That was only fifty-seven years ago, 
and yet there is hardly any name on the map of Canada 
— beyond the limits of Canada East, Canada West, 
and the Maritime Provinces — which is to be found in 
any atlas now used in the public schools of the Domin- 
ion; or in the United States, for that matter. British 
Columbia, which is of so much importance when we 
think of the Canadian Rockies, is called New Georgia 
on that old map; the central prairie section and the 
northern districts are chopped up into a great number of 
small tracts that are given names so fantastic that I 
am sure the draughtsman who prepared that map 
simply let his pen run riot and gave free rein to his 



206 THE COMING CANADA 

imagination. Very few, of what I suppose were intended 
to be political divisions, were ever known to the Cana- 
dian officials by the names which appear on that map. 

From the broad, yet not continuous, base along the 
American frontier, the mountains trend off towards 
the northwest, and they include of course the Selkirks, 
the Cascade Range, many spurs in the south, and the 
semi-detached range of the St. Elias Alps of southern 
Alaska. Broadly speaking, the Canadian Rocky Moun- 
tain system embraces the mountains of the islands 
stretching along the coast of British Columbia: the 
system finally runs out in the remotest Klondike district 
of the Yukon Territory. The average width of the 
mountain belt, from the International boundary to the 
Yukon Territory line, is about four hundred miles, and 
in the south it takes in pretty nearly the whole width of 
British Columbia. The tallest peaks in the whole 
section are found near the southern end of the boundary 
— determined by joint commission only a couple of 
years ago * — separating Alaska and Yukon territories. 
In Canadian territory there is Mt. Logan, 19,540 feet; 
while Mt. St. Elias, 18,000 feet, from whose summit 
starts the international boundary along the 141st 
meridian west of Greenwich, is common property. It 
is hardly fair to include Mt. McKinley, 20,000 feet, in 
this knob of mountains, for it is ten degrees west of the 
boundary and in Alaska. But the group may properly 
include Mt. Natazhat and Mt. Wrangle; nevertheless 
it is fully one thousand miles northwest of the Rocky 
Mountains proper. All these peaks I have just named 

* See American Geographical Magazine for September, 191 2. 



CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 207 

and others in their immediate or proximate neighbour- 
hood, are encoated with glaciers and snow-capped 
perennially, save in a few open nooks looking towards 
the south. 

In the Rocky Mountains proper, the southern section 
along the boundary between Alberta and British Colum- 
bia, there are peaks cHmbing up to ten or twelve thou- 
sand feet above sea-level; but they are not covered with 
snow all the year round, and while there are plenty of 
glaciers, most of them are small; while even these must 
be rather exceptionally located. Owing to the influence 
of the mild air from the Pacific Ocean, the snow Hne in 
southern British Columbia is remarkably high, and 
even in what we think of as ''Arctic Alaska" it is from 
two to three thousand feet above the sea. For the 
same reason, the British Columbia timber Hne is high, 
7500 feet in the south, and 4000 feet in Alaska. Indeed, 
the western slopes of the Canadian Rockies — especially 
the Selkirks and the Coast Range — show a vegetation 
that is almost tropical in its luxuriance and density. 
The grand cedar forests, as well as those of the Douglas 
fir, are well known to all botanists and lumbermen, and 
they have justly aroused the admiration of all visitors. 
Many of those trees are quite ten feet in diameter and 
they tower up as straight as a ship's mast to the height 
of one hundred and fifty feet. 

Throughout the whole region that is included within 
the bounds of the Canadian Rockies, it is no exaggera- 
tion to say that everyone whose interest or occupation 
is related to the earth itself may find a place where his 
particular bent can be followed to the fullest extent. 



2o8 THE COMING CANADA 

The lower valleys offer to the husbandman farms, vary- 
ing in extent from a few acres up to wide domains which 
satisfy the ideals of the most ambitious ranchman. The 
foothills of the western slopes have already been demon- 
strated to be as well adapted to the fruit grower's needs 
as any part of the world. The miner has a choice 
amongst such a variety of metals and minerals as 
scarcely admits of enumeration. The lumberman, as 
has been stated, may still wield his axe in what is the 
largest tract of virgin timber to be seen in North America, 
and therefore in all the world. The trapper may yet 
pursue his avocation most profitably. 

But I imagine that it is for the tourist the Canadian 
Rockies will be an attraction par excellence; although 
of course the sportsman will demand the right to share 
the privileges with the visitor who is mainly on pleasure 
bent. Until the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is pre- 
pared to run passenger trains into and through the 
Rocky Mountains along its more northern pass, the 
stations of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Banff, 
Laggan, Field, Donald, Glacier, Revelstoke, Kamloops, 
and doubtless some others, will be the objective point 
of tourists and sportsmen who contemplate excursions 
into this world of mountains. 

Banff is, however, the most important and popular 
of these places, because it is the central point of the 
Canadian National Park. Within easy reach of this 
station there is so much charming scenery and natural 
beauty that the Dominion Government, co-operating 
with the Railway Company, has set apart a tract of 
about 260 square miles for the purposes of this Park. 



CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 209 

Good roads have been made to all places which are 
accessible by wheeled vehicles; and to those that are 
in wilder districts, bridle-paths have been cut. A 
detachment of the efficient Northwest Mounted PoKce 
maintains order and watches the careless visitor to see 
that fires do not spread and that wanton destruction 
is not committed. It is a strange commentary upon 
human nature that some people who are so well provided 
with means as to be able to take these excursions, must 
nevertheless be watched to see that they do not deface 
Nature. One would naturally suppose that at least a 
measure of culture and consideration would go with 
ability to travel; but it is startling how often there is 
an absolute lack of such blending. In the summer 
Banff is, in a small way, one of the most cosmopolitan 
places. Travellers bound for the Far East often give 
themselves an extra day or two for the overland journey 
to Vancouver, in order that they may "stop over" here; 
while those who have come from Japan are seldom in 
such a desperate hurry to go on to eastern Canada, the 
United States, or Europe, as to be unable or imwilling 
to lay over here and rest or revel in the nearby attrac- 
tions. Then, too, the number of those who have come 
here specially is always considerable in summer. 

In July and August, Banff is one of the most deHght- 
ful places in all North America. It stands 4500 feet 
above the sea and in that latitude this ensures cool 
nights; and cool days, too, for it is unusual for the 
mercury to go as high as 80° F. in the shade. During 
midsummer there is very Kttle rain, and for this great 
dryness one is sometimes punished because of the smoke 



2IO THE COMING CANADA 

which blows down into the valley from forest fires that, 
despite the care of guards, do ravage the timber. This 
smoke sometimes becomes so thick that the mountains 
are obscured and through the yellow pall the sun shines 
in an uncanny way. 

When the weather is clear, the atmosphere plays some 
queer tricks upon the strangers; what is really very 
far away seems to be brought quite near; and the in- 
experienced tourist, who refuses to listen to the advice 
of guides, will tramp off to ascend a ''nearby" mountain 
to return for lunch, when the experienced know that the 
jaunt is really a three days' trip. Mr. Walter Dwight 
Wilcox* tells of some visitors who started from Banff 
Springs Hotel one afternoon to ascend Cascade Moun- 
tain, which does seem to be very near, and return the 
next morning. They refused guides, and at the end 
of three days turned up begrimed with soot and dirt, 
having wandered about in the burnt timber without 
even getting near to Cascade. This experience can be 
matched by similar ones of those who have been deceived 
by the clarity of Colorado's atmosphere. 

Lake Louise is well said to be one of the most beauti- 
ful sheets of water in the Canadian Rockies, and it is 
just sufficiently difficult to get to it to add zest to the 
undertaking. It is only a mile long and at its widest 
only a quarter of a mile across. The forests surround it, 
coming down to the water's edge save for the merest 
fringe of shingle. The brilliant green water is so clear 
that the sand and stones and the sunken logs at the 
bottom can be distinctly seen. Through a deep notch 

* Camping in the Rockies. 



CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 211 

at the lower end of this lake, Mount Lefroy pokes its 
head high up into the sky; this is one of the boldest 
peaks of the great central watershed. The melting 
snow and the rain on its eastern sides run off into the 
Saskatchewan River and thus reach Hudson Bay; while 
the western side is drained by streams which eventually 
carry their waters to the Pacific Ocean. 

Within a few miles of Mt. Lefroy and Lake Louise 
there are many other peaks and mountain tarns which 
make this little section one well worthy the careful 
attention of travellers. Although far from being abso- 
lutely difiicult of access, the district is not at all well 
known, and indeed one may truthfully say that from 
the original Une of the Canadian Pacific Railway, that 
which still uses the Kicking Horse Pass, southward to 
the new route which is to avoid some of the heavy 
work of the present main fine, and to the American 
boundary, there yet remains something for the explorer 
to do. 

A careful observer has said that in mountainous 
regions, where the air is very dry, as in Colorado or in 
certain parts of the Andes, there is a wide belt, some- 
times a thousand feet of altitude or more, between 
timber fine and snow line. In that belt there is not 
sufficient moisture to develop tree growth, and yet not 
enough snow falls to admit of glacier formation. In the 
Canadian Rockies the air is wet enough to let these 
lines, timber and snow, approach; and in the Selkirks 
the humidity is so great that the snow Hne actually 
intrudes upon the timber. In these conditions, it is 
not surprising that in the western valleys of the Canadian 



212 THE COMING CANADA 

Rockies there are many glaciers already known, and it 
is reasonable to assume that there are more which have 
not yet been discovered; but with such exceptions as 
the glacier at Glacier House on the C. P. R. most of 
these Canadian ice-rivers are small. 

If my reader wishes to get an idea of how much there 
is for the adventurous tourist to do in the Canadian 
Rockies, or for the careful, scientific explorer to discover, 
let him read some books like those which have been 
mentioned (and made use of) in these pages, and then 
turn to what is claimed to be a fairly up-to-date map of 
the Dominion. He will learn that even in the southern 
part of the Cordillera Belt, the writer is far ahead of 
the cartographist. As to the northern part, the little 
information we have is that to be gleaned from an 
occasional book telling of some small section. 

Saint Piran is a mountain peak, of no astonishing 
altitude, 8000 feet only, but interesting because it was 
a useful triangulation station for the engineers who laid 
out the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rockies; 
and doubtless the survey and location reports for the 
Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern will 
add something to our fund of information concerning 
mountain peaks and other matters of importance. 
Saint Piran has further interest because its round dome- 
like summit, far above the timber line, is, like many 
another ''Bald," a favourite haunt of butterflies. Some 
of the rarest and most beautiful of these creatures gather 
here in great numbers during the long, bright, sunny 
days of summer, attracted by the gaudy alpine flowers 
which have devoted all their plant energy to producing 



1 



CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 213 

large, brilliantly coloured blossoms that lure and nourish 
the various winged creatures. 

Not far from Laggan, a small station thirty-seven 
miles west of Banff, is a mountain with a depression 
between its two peaks; one of which is higher and sharper 
than the other. The conformation gives the appearance 
of pommel and crupper, so that the mountain is called 
The Saddle. A trail has been cut and this typical 
alpine, or elevated mountain, meadow is a popular jaunt 
with tourists. The "long, rich grass waves in the 
summer breezes, beautified by mountain flowers, 
anemones, sky-blue forget-me-nots, and scarlet castil- 
leias. Scattered larch-trees make a very park of this 
place, while the great smiling slopes rise in graceful 
curves toward the mountain peaks on either side.'* 
About three miles beyond The Saddle stands Mount 
Temple, the highest peak at all near the C. P. R. Its 
summit is 11,658 feet above the sea, and because the 
mountain is surrounded by valleys that are rarely more 
than 6000 feet, its appearance is rendered all the more 
effective. The precipitous walls breathe defiance to 
even the most adept alpinist on all sides save the south; 
and even there the ascent may not be made too easily. 
The partly melted and re-congealed snow has made a 
remarkable glacier on the summit, and because there is 
no overhanging peak from which may fall stones and 
debris, the ice is of singular purity. *'0n the west face, 
the glacier overhangs a precipice, and, by constantly 
crowding forward and breaking off, has formed a nearly 
vertical face of ice, which is in one place three hundred 
and twenty-five feet thick. I have seen passengers on 



214 THE COMING CANADA 

the trains who were surprised to learn that the ice in 
this very place is anything more than a yard in depth, 
and who regarded with misplaced pity and contempt 
those who have any larger ideas on the subject." * 

In confirmation of what I have said about the possi- 
bilities for explorers and tourists, I add that in 1895 
only, Mount Assiniboine (some insist upon the older, 
Indian, form Assiniboia), a remarkable peak south of 
Banff, was stumbled upon by chance. Its height has 
not even yet been accurately determined, and from the 
few accounts given of the wonderful mountain, it is 
not Hkely to be done by actual ascent very soon. It is 
probably the highest peak that has yet been found 
between the International Boundary and Mounts 
Brown and Hooker (52° 30' N.). The mountain is so 
unusually steep on all sides that no one has yet, I believe, 
gained the top. There are so many small, beautiful 
lakes in the neighbourhood that the locality — it is 
five or six days by camping and pack outfit from Banff 
— must be exceptionally attractive. The trail which has 
already been made from the main line of the Canadian 
Pacific Railway is said to lead through meadows that 
are carpeted with wild flowers in summer, and among 
them are some rather rare orchids, the Calypso for 
example. The view of Mount Assiniboine from Summit 
Lake must be most exhilarating, and the excellent 
photogravure in Mr. Wilcox's book very distinctly recalls 
the Matterhorn by its sharp pinnacle form. 

* Wilcox, op. cit. 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 

A GOODLY portion of this formerly great domain, 
almost imperial in its dimensions, has recently 
been annexed to the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and 
Manitoba. Some was previously set off as the provinces 
of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The remainder is now 
included in the North West Territories and Yukon 
Territory. The geographical names, Ungava and Kee- 
watin, have disappeared from the map, if not perma- 
nently, at least until development and increase of 
population justify the Dominion Government's creating 
additional political divisions. 

If I were a cartographer, I should hesitate a long time 
before designating any part of this earth's surface as 
desert, or inhospitable, or barren; unless it were such a 
section as Arabia, the African deserts — Sahara and 
Libya — and others, concerning which our information 
is adequate and precise enough to justify the condem- 
natory designation. I make this prefatory remark 
because on the maps that I studied as a schoolboy, and 
even on those which were given to children of the gener- 
ation following me, much of this great Hudson Bay 
Territory was branded inaccurately because of the 
ignorance of those who were required to make maps, 



2l6 THE COMING CANADA 

and yet were not furnished with proper data for carry- 
ing out their work correctly. 

The portion of the Dominion which is to be considered 
in this chapter is really that territory which was included 
in the original charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
or appropriated by the Company's officials without 
precise warrant. For rather more than half of the 
territory over which the Company eventually claimed 
jurisdiction, their title was legally only that of squatters; 
but it was found easier to recognise that title than to 
incur the expense of disputing it. I was much surprised 
to be told by the Right Honourable Sir Wilfred Laurier, 
who was for many years — and until two years ago — 
Prime Minister of Canada, that the history of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company is but little known; and yet, when 
I came to investigate the subject, I found the statement 
to be quite accurate. 

Undoubtedly there is a great deal of interesting infor- 
mation hidden away in the archives of England and 
Canada, that is waiting for some competent scholar to 
digest and publish it. When this is done, we shall be 
astonished more by the delicacy and precision of the 
internal mechanism than by any external aspects of 
the giant monopoly. It was certainly one of the most 
perfectly organised commercial enterprises that ever 
existed. Although the Company came to be, in the 
1 8th century, perhaps the biggest bone over which 
France and England contended, yet its inception was 
undoubtedly due to explorations and activities of the 
French. 

Very few of the French people who left Europe in the 



THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 217 

17th century to make for themselves new homes in 
America, settled down as farmers or tillers of the soil 
in any way, or as tradesmen. Nearly all of the men, 
and I believe I am correct when I say all the young men, 
became hunters and trappers; and for this avocation 
the young French immigrants displayed remarkable 
qualifications. They appear to have adapted them- 
selves more readily to the ways of the Indians than did 
any other Europeans; and it cannot be denied that, at 
first certainly and for a long time, the French were more 
successful in gaining the friendship and confidence of 
the savage Red Men than were their EngHsh competitors. 

In the introduction which Sir Wilfred Laurier wrote 
for the second volume of Mr. J. Castell Flopkins' En- 
cyclopaedia of Canada, he makes a statement which I 
think no competent observer will deny: "It would seem 
that the very wildness of the forest exercised a strange 
fascination over the men of the GalHc race, which made 
them cling to the adventurer's life for the very love of it, 
when it had been first embraced for profit and lucre. 
There sprang into existence a class of men who became 
and have remained famous all over the continent under 
the name of coureurs des hois; rovers of the forest, im- 
patient of the restraints of civilisation, dehghting in the 
freedom of the Indian whose hut they shared and whose 
garb they adopted — a garb under which there often 
coursed the best and proudest blood of old France." 

When Radisson and de Groseillier came back to Quebec 
after having made their way to James Bay (Hudson 
Bay), they offered to take ships through Hudson's 
Straits into the very heart of the fur country; for it 



2l8 THE COMING CANADA 

will be remembered that Radisson had declared the 
streams which empty into James Bay to be the beaver 
country par excellence. Had the offer been accepted, 
not only would the difficult and dangerous canoe route 
by way of Lake Superior, or the shorter but rather more 
hazardous one from the Ottawa River, have been 
avoided, but the priority of occupation thereby gained 
for the Frenchmen would have prevented, in all prob- 
abihty, the expense, destruction of property, and loss 
of life which the subsequent rivalry between the English 
and French caused. 

The plan of the voyageurs was rejected in both Canada 
and France, and therefore the two men went to London, 
because the British ambassador at Paris told them they 
would be reasonably sure to gain a favourable hearing. 
The proposition was entertained, and a preliminary 
expedition was sent to Hudson Bay by some merchants 
then connected with the Newfoundland trade. This 
initial venture was so very successful that the incorpora- 
tion of the Hudson's Bay Company promptly followed. 
It was a long time, however, before the Company was 
firmly established throughout the vast region which came 
to be known as Rupert's Land, and later The North 
West Territories; but eventually all the continent from 
Canada west to Russian possessions was appropriated. 

Hudson's Bay Company's posts, or ''forts," were to 
be found along all the northern coast of the mainland, 
and upon some, at least, of the Arctic islands, as well as 
on the Labrador coast. From the icy streams which flow 
into the Arctic Ocean and their tributaries, those posts 
spread out over the great territory, and were pushed on 



THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 219 

and on until they were to be found on the Pacific's 
shores, in regions that even the wildest fancy of H. R. H. 
Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland, and his titled or 
humble colleagues of the "body corporate and politic" 
styled ''The Governor and Company of Adventurers 
of England trading in Hudson's Bay," had never in- 
cluded within the scope of their monopoly. 

When, after the middle of the nineteenth century, the 
Company had attained its widest range and most com- 
plete organisation, all its parts were working with that 
precision which can be secured, in the affairs of such a 
gigantic enterprise, only when the controlling power is 
absolute and either individual or corporate in the closest 
sense of that word. Doubtless a very large part of the 
Hudson's Bay Company's success was due to the fact 
that every one of its post traders (or Company's agents 
or factors) had been born in the Company, so to speak, 
or had gone to America from the northern part of Scot- 
land as a lad, had toiled steadily, grown old, and been 
forever faithful to the interests of the great corporation 
whose servant he was. 

"Connecting all these posts was a vast, complete, 
sure system of communication. Furs were collected 
from post to post, provisions and merchandise dis- 
tributed, and mails conveyed and distributed, with less 
celerity, no doubt, but with as much security as in the 
most advanced times of our own country in our own 
day. Dog teams were in constant motion during winter, 
flotillas of birch canoes during summer. For two hun- 
dred years or more a ship especially constructed for the 
hardy service and as regularly as the course of the 



220 THE COMING CANADA 

planets, crossed and re-crossed between England and 
Hudson's Bay, bringing with it provisions and articles 
of exchange, taking to England the furs collected from 
all over the continent. What a fascination there is 
in that history! Of what development it is susceptible! 
What a strange alliance it exhibits of cold, systematic 
organisation and of adventurous, romantic experience!" * 

Exceptions could hardly be taken, with propriety that 
is to say, to considering the Hudson Bay Territory as 
identical with the claims of the Company; for when the 
final negotiations were carried out it was the "North 
West" — or, in other words, the territory of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company which was transferred, and it was 
looked upon as including practically everything north 
and west of Quebec and Ontario Provinces to the North 
Pole, exclusive of Greenland, to the Pacific Ocean and 
the Alaskan frontier. It had reached out far beyond 
what was originally contemplated; because in 1814, 
when there was a dispute as to the rights of the Com- 
pany in the Red River of the North Valley, an opinion 
was given by learned counsel which, in part, read thus: 
*'We are of the opinion that the grant of the soil con- 
tained in the charter is good, and that it will include all 
countries the waters of which flow into Hudson's Bay; 
that an individual, holding from the Hudson's Bay 
Company a lease or grant, in fee simple, on any portion 
of their territory, will be entitled to all the ordinary 
rights of landed property in England." 

Either as servants originally and continuously of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, or because of their association 

* Laurier. 



THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 221 

with that Company after the absorption by it of the 
North West Company — for some time a most formi- 
dable rival in the peltry trade — there are several men of 
importance to be mentioned. Donald A. Smith, after- 
wards first Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal; Alex- 
ander Mackenzie, afterwards Sir Alexander; James 
Douglas, afterwards Sir James; The Right Honourable 
Edward Ellice; Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of Selkirk, 
Simon Eraser, and others. Individually some of them 
will be mentioned again in a later chapter. Just here 
it is sufiicient to note that they were influential in expand- 
ing British authority throughout the great region of the 
Hudson's Bay Company. 

At the time of the transfer of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany's titular rights to the Colonial Government, when 
the North West Territories became a part of the official 
British possessions in North America, this vast region 
was looked upon as truly an unknown land, and as such 
was spoken of by all. It was assumed to be an inhos- 
pitable country, adapted solely to the Indian amongst 
human beings as a place of residence, and yet of some 
economic value by reason of the buffalo, other game, and 
many fur-bearing animals. It is needless to say that its 
purchase was vehemently opposed by many Canadians. 

Yet as soon as the Dominion Government had made 
even a little progress in its systematic explorations and 
surveys, it was found that much of this inhospitable 
region is admirably suited to agricultural and pastoral 
pursuits. It is very surprising that the topographical 
and meteorological conditions are comparatively little 
varied, when we bear in mind the great differences in 



222 THE COMING CANADA 

longitude and latitude. Even what were long called 
the monotonous stony tracts and mossy wastes of frozen 
soils, known comprehensively as ''The Barren Grounds," 
are not so utterly devoid of economic possibilities as 
was at first assumed. The grass covered plains of the 
southern sections quickly came to be known the world 
over, and their advantages promptly proved to be 
attractive; while experiment and practical demonstra- 
tion have pushed northward and still farther north the 
bounds set upon the farming lands of the North West. 

A glance at the map will reveal the fact that the 
Mackenzie River and its tributaries drain a very large 
part of the Hudson's Bay Company's territory. In 
1888, a select committee of the Dominion Parhament 
was appointed to enquire into the resources and eco- 
nomic value of the great Mackenzie River Basin. The 
report submitted as a result of this committee's investi- 
gation is a tremendously bulky document and is remark- 
ably thorough in scope and incisive in detail. The 
committee undertook, successfully, to give information 
relating to a tract amounting to one million two hundred 
and sixty thousand square miles in area, yet did not 
include any of the islands in the Arctic Sea, although 
some are so near the mainland as to make them seem to 
come within the realm of the report. 

To the Basin a coast line was assigned of about 5000 
miles on the Arctic Sea and Hudson Bay, but excluding 
all inlets and deeply indented bays; and more than one- 
half of this coast is readily accessible by whahng and 
sealing craft, as well as by merchant steamers. The 
lake area is estimated as exceeding, in the aggregate, 



THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 223 

that of the Great Lakes. 2750 miles of the Mackenzie 
Basin rivers are navigable in a way: 1360 miles for 
small sea-going steamers, 1390 for light draft stern- 
wheel steamboats. 

One paragraph of the report affirms that there is a 
possible area of 656,000 square miles fitted for the growth 
of potatoes; 407,000 square miles suitable for barley; 
and 316,000 square miles, adapted to wheat. 860,000 
square miles are well suited to stock raising, 26,000 of 
which are open prairie with occasional clumps of trees, 
the remainder being more or less wooded. 274,000 
square miles, including the prairie, may be considered 
arable land. The committee gave it as their opinion 
that 400,000 square miles, or one-third of the total area 
comprehended in their report, is useless for the pasturage 
of domestic animals or for cultivation; this area compris- 
ing the so-called Barren Grounds and a portion of the 
lightly wooded region to their south and west. 

In the arable and pastoral areas, latitude seems to 
have no direct connection with the summer isotherms: 
the spring flowers and the buds of deciduous trees appear 
as early to the north of the Great Slave Lake (say lat. 
60° N.) as they do at Winnipeg, St. Paul and Min- 
neapolis, Kingston or Ottawa, and earlier along the 
Peace, Liard, and some minor western affluents of the 
Mackenzie River, where the climate resembles that of 
Western Ontario. The native grasses and food-plants 
(vetches) are always equal, where they grow, to those 
of Eastern Canada, and in many districts they are 
decidedly superior. The prevailing southwest summer 
winds bring the warmth and moisture which make it 



224 THE COMING CANADA 

possible to cultivate cereals at points which seem to be 
abnormally far north; they likewise affect the climate 
as far north as the Arctic Circle, and eastward to the 
very limits of the Mackenzie Basin. 

Subsequent experience has shown that the general 
tone of this report was over-conservative, for the opinions 
and forecasts have been rather more than confirmed by 
practical efforts of agriculturalists and stockmen. Some 
of the ''useless" square miles have been made to yield 
fairly remunerative returns; and this being the case, 
it is not altogether unreasonable to expect that intelli- 
gent effort will result in changing some of the legends on 
maps of the eastern parts of the Hudson's Bay Territory, 
now northern Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, possibly 
up to the Labrador border: the most favourable term 
formerly applied to these sections was hardly com- 
mendatory; the general one was condemnatory. If a 
quarter of a century has sufficed to show that much of 
what was considered "impossible" land in central and 
western Hudson's Bay Territory is not such; it may be 
that there is hope for what was until recently Ungava. 

There remains one section of the Dominion (it was 
a part of the Hudson's Bay Company's jurisdiction) 
concerning which I wish to say something more. It is 
now caUed British Columbia; but it was formerly — 
and I believe originally, so far as Britons were concerned 
— given the name of New Caledonia; in imitation, one 
is disposed to think, of the title which was devised for 
the bonnie province at the other end of the American 
possessions, Nova Scotia. I am indebted to the Rev. 
A. G. Morice, O.M.I., who expanded an original paper 




Hudson Bay Post, Lake Athabaska, 59° N. 




Clearwater River, Athabaska River, 57° N. 



THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 225 

on Aboriginal History into an interesting volume of 
several hundred pages filled with information about 
British Columbia.* It is unnecessary to name Mr. 
Morice's ecclesiastical allegiance; but I may say that 
he writes with no sectarian prejudice. So far as a some- 
what extensive experience enables me to check his 
statements, I find him remarkably accurate. 

I am truly sorry to admit that Mr. Morice is quite 
correct when he says, in his Preface, " The record of those 
times and ways of life which are irrevocably past has 
never been written, not to say pubHshed, and the only 
author who has ever touched on some of the events 
with which we will soon entertain the reader, Hubert 
Howe Bancroft, is so irretrievably inaccurate in his 
remarks that his treatment of the same might be con- 
sidered well-nigh worthless." North of the International 
Boundary, Bancroft's information seems to have been 
gathered from strangely unreliable sources, so that the 
volumes of the series, Native Races of the Pacific Coast, 
which deal with British Columbia, etc., are in imhappy 
contrast with the rest of the great work. 

It has been intimated herein that some time before 
the province of British Columbia consented to cast in 
its lot with the rest of the Dominion, there had been a 
provisional form of government; but according to Mr. 
Morice very few citizens knew that long before Victoria 
(chartered 1862) and New Westminster (dates from 
1859, incorporated i860) had been called into existence, 
the province had been settled in a way, and had possessed 

* The History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, formerly 
New Caledonia, 1660 to 1880. 



226 THE COMING CANADA 

a regular capital — at Stuart Lake, in the southern end 
of what is now Cassiar County, and far away from the 
present settled portions of the province. At that 
post a representative of the British people ruled over 
reds and whites. 

One would naturally suppose that the officials of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, still in corporate existence 
and very active and prosperous, would know something 
of the history of their own Company, or would, at least, 
not permit any statement to be made officially without 
establishing its accuracy; and yet, according to Mr. 
Morice, in 1905 it issued a pamphlet at Vancouver con- 
taining this statement: ^'Although McKenzie came 
west in 1793, it was not until thirty years later (or in 
1823) that the first post was established in British Co- 
lumbia." Now, in the first place, the famous explorer's 
name was not McKenzie but Mackenzie; and in the 
second place, long before 1823 six of the most important 
Hudson's Bay Company's trading posts had been 
established in the northern part of New Caledonia, 
and their contributions to the stocks of the Company 
were such as to make the province one of the most 
valuable districts in the Company's territory. 

On June 9, 1793, Mackenzie fell in for the first 
time with some Sekania Indians. They had heard of 
white men but had never before seen any, and they at 
once ran away. When Mackenzie sent men to parley 
with them, the strange Indians were very boisterous and 
wary; but presently their fears were allayed and the 
explorers discovered that they had some iron implements. 
They said they got iron from other Indians living up 



THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 227 

the valley of a large river; these obtained it from others 
who lived in houses; and these last procured the metal 
from men who were like Mackenzie. The river Indians 
were Carriers; those who had houses were Coast Indians, 
and the great river was the Fraser, as it was to be called 
later. A Sekania agreed to go with the strangers to 
act as guide; but he promptly bolted and Mackenzie 
was left to get along as best he could. 

Mr. Morice gives almost the full account which 
Mackenzie himself wrote of his first encounter with the 
fierce Carriers; and I should like to insert it here, but 
it is too long. It shows the man's intrepidity and also 
his success in gaining the confidence of these people 
which later he secured by going alone and unarmed into 
their midst. Eventually, and without coming to blows 
with any of the natives, Mackenzie and his whole party 
reached an arm of the sea, now called Bentinck (Dean) 
Inlet, where he cut this legend on a rock: "Alexander 
Mackenzie from Canada by land the twenty second of 
July one thousand seven hundred and ninety three." 
Thence the party returned to Fort Chippewayan (Chipe- 
wyan, on Lake Athabasca, Alberta Province), which 
they reached on August 24th. It will thus be seen that 
it is not correct to say, as do some writers, that "Simon 
Fraser . . . appears to have been the first white man 
to cross the Canadian Rockies in charge of an expedi- 
tion." * Nor is it any more accurate to say "the 
Rocky Mountains formed an impassable barrier until 
Sir Alexander Mackenzie crossed them in lygoP 

* Dr. A. Rattray, History of the S. S. '■^ Beaver, ^^ Vancouver Island 
and British Columbia. 



228 THE COMING CANADA 

In 1809 Simon Fraser descended the river which bears 
his name, from Fraser Lake (Lat. 54° N. Long. 126° W.) 
to the Gulf of Georgia, and ascertained that the river 
he explored empties itself into the ocean, about four 
degrees of latitude north of the Columbia's mouth. It 
was his purpose to distinguish the two streams; and 
that he accomplished. David Thompson, for whom 
another important British Columbia river is named, 
discovered the upper Columbia, and on July 9, 181 1, 
near the Snake River set up a pole to which be afhxed 
half a sheet of paper bearing this notice: ''Know hereby: 
this country is claimed by Great Britain, and the North 
West Company from Canada do hereby intend to erect 
a factory on this place for the commerce of the country. 
D. Thompson." 



CHAPTER XVII 
THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 

AN idea of what the title to this chapter means, and 
an inkling of what it may indicate within a very- 
few years, are very neatly put by Agnes Deans Cameron.* 
"Place a pair of dividers with one leg on Winnipeg and 
the other leg at Key West, Florida. Then swing the 
lower leg to the northwest, and it will not reach the 
limit of good agricultural land." It would be rash to 
say that the prime wheat fields of the Dominion are to be 
defined by the eastern boundary of Manitoba Province. 
What may be the possibilities in regions that are now 
condemned as severely as was so much of the whole 
North West only a few years ago, it is not for me even to 
guess. But I may take for my beginning that which 
now marks the eastern boundary fence of ''Canada's 
One- thousand-mile- wheat-field." At Winnipeg there is 
now a choice between three trunk lines which cross or 
skirt this pretty little tract; while of shorter lines that 
penetrate it for from a few scores of miles up to several 
hundreds, there are so many that their time-tables add 
just so many more to the puzzles which these well- 
meant (but often badly executed) helps to the traveller 

* The New North, Being Some Account of a Woman's Journey through 
Canada to the Arctic y igio. 



230 THE COMING CANADA 

create. The southern border of this huge wheat field 
may be called the International Boundary. Its western 
runs along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Its 
northern: well that is something for our grandchildren, 
or perhaps our great-grandchildren to determine; and 
if the next century holds within its still sealed up 
mysteries as many surprises as the nineteenth gave 
to humanity, it may be that the sons of the present 
Canadian's grandchildren will be holding the plough — 
or whatever '^ sharp-edged instrument with which the 
Theban husbandman lays bare the breast of our good 
Mother" — along the very shores of the Arctic Seas 
themselves ! 

I wonder if Gen. William T. Sherman would have 
injected quite so much of annoyance and sarcasm into 
his synonym for Canada, '^the sleeping nation beyond," 
as he did when he spoke it thirty or forty years ago, 
were he aHve to-day? In its way, the awakening of 
Canada and the lure which she is holding forth to our 
husbandmen, are capable of doing us more harm than 
could a successful war: but is that fact one which can 
be resented by armed force? If ''we are on the heels 
of the greatest economic treck this world has ever seen," 
it would be churlish on the part of the people of the 
United States to harbour any hard feeHngs if it means 
still further drawing off of a population which they 
most regret to see going over to an economic competitor; 
but one who will not, I feel sure, ever be more than a 
very strenuous and (may be) troublesome agricultural, 
industrial, and commercial rival. 

As an illustration of the hazard which attends the 



THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 231 

limiting of these agricultural possibilities, I quote from 
Mr. John Macoun * who wrote just thirty years ago. 
^'If 150,000,000 acres be given as the approximate 
number of acres suited to wheat culture, another 100,- 
000,000 acres could be added if the raising of barley be 
taken into account." The estimates of the Dominion 
Department of Agriculture for the season of 191 2 gave, 
as was stated in Chapter VIII, the area under grain 
cultivation as 15,728,900 acres in the three provinces of 
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and the same 
Department estimates the arable land in those provinces 
at upwards of 300,000,000 acres. 

In what was the Territory of Ungava, now northern 
Quebec and Ontario, and including that portion of 
Labrador which belongs in the Dominion, experts in 
matters pertaining to agricultural possibilities are satis- 
fied to say that while vegetables are successfully grown 
in certain places, and that in the middle of the Labrador 
peninsula there is some fairly good agricultural land, 
yet on the whole the climate is considered too cold for 
successful agriculture. In the former Territory of 
Keewatin, which has had to bear a very bad reputation, 
it has been ascertained that there are over 6,000,000 
acres adapted to agriculture. Wheat has been grown 
successfully as far north as Norway House, about 53° 
20' North lat. As to the vast region north of the Saskat- 
chewan Valley and west of former Keewatin, which may 
be described somewhat broadly as the Great Mackenzie 
Basin, thoroughly authentic and well substantiated 
evidence shows that this section is much more valuable 
* Manitoba and the Great North West, 1883. 



232 THE COMING CANADA 

agriculturally than was supposed. It is capable of sus- 
taining a large, prosperous, and permanent population. 
As yet the settlements in this distant region are insignif- 
icant in number and ridiculously disproportionate to 
the area of the Basin; nevertheless they are of impor- 
tance as indicating practically and unquestionably the 
great possibilities of this region as an agricultural and 
industrial community. 

These known conditions emphasise the necessity for 
technical investigation and of surveying such areas as 
are likely to attract the stream of settlers who are 
bound to go there soon. According to one witness, who 
had had exceptional opportunities for familiarising him- 
self with the country and its resources, there is, in the 
Peace River Valley, as much good agricultural land 
suited to the settler's needs and not yet occupied, as 
there has been taken up by homesteaders and purchasers 
in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta Provinces. 
Mr. W. F. Bredin, who was examined before a Senate 
committee, resides near Lesser Slave Lake. After a 
careful computation, he estimated the area of agri- 
cultural lands available in Mackenzie territory and in 
northern Alberta (not yet surveyed and thrown open 
to settlement), say north of the 55th parallel of lati- 
tude, at not less than 100,000,000 acres.* It will be 
remembered that the Arctic Circle is 66° 31!' North 
Latitude, or 691! geographical miles north of 55°, and 
it has already been stated, in a previous chapter of this 

* See Canada's Fertile Northland. Evidence heard before a select 
Committee of the Senate of Canada during the ParHamentary Session 
of 1906-7, and the Report based thereon. Edited by Capt. Ernest 
J. Chambers, Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod. 



THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 233 

book, that much farther north than that parallel, wheat 
has been successfully grown. 

What a contrast do the methods employed by the 
newly arrived settler present to those which the estab- 
lished husbandman follows! In a former chapter it 
was shown how generously the Dominion Government 
permits a widow, having minor children dependant 
upon her, to take up a homestead. This is a verbal 
picture of one such mother going to work to secure a 
home for her flock: ^'As day breaks we catch a glimpse 
of a sunbonneted mother and her three little kiddies. 
An ox is their rude coadjutor, and through the flower- 
sod they cut their first furrow. It is the beginning of 
a new home." But almost better yet is it to think of 
the crowded cities of the Old World; and may we not 
say of the New World too? In both there are so many 
prematurely old men and women; so many anaemic 
children; such sweltering, fetid slums! *' Surely in 
bringing the workless man of the Old World to the man- 
less work of the New, the Canadian Government and 
the transportation companies are doing a part of God's 
work." 

Now to carry out the contrast. It sounds a little 
Miinchhausen-Kke to say that on some of the great 
estates, the gang-ploughs, drawn by a dozen horses, 
deploy off en echelon after breakfast and make but one 
furrow out and another back in the forenoon, getting 
home in time for dinner, and another pair of furrows in 
the afternoon; yet the exaggeration gives an idea of 
what is the size of some of the great Canadian wheat 
fields. But in all parts of the three great grain prov- 



234 THE COMING CANADA 

inces, steam is largely replacing animal power, not only 
in ploughing but for reaping and harvesting. The 
usual way of handling this motive power, is for two 
traction engines to pass along parallel borders of the 
tract to be treated, and to haul, by long steel ropes, the 
great gang-plough back and forth, or the harvester, or 
the combination reaper, thresher, and binder. When a 
grain field is a mile square (and there are plenty which 
are much larger than that), it is easy to see that the 
apparent expense of such methods is quickly offset by 
the economy of time and manual labour. Further- 
more, the work is better done! 

The province of Saskatchewan was either untilled 
prairie or unbroken wilderness only a few years ago; but 
thousands of industrious immigrants have transformed 
great tracts into fruitful farms which are principally 
devoted to wheat. In harvest time it is an exhila- 
rating sight to look at the machines passing through 
the great fields, in which the wheat ears stand up to 
the horses' shoulders. Not only in Saskatchewan, but 
in Manitoba and Alberta, of course, are such scenes 
common. 

Forty bushels of wheat to the acre is not too high an 
average to put upon the crop of Canada's wheat fields; 
that is, in the west and northwest. After all expenses 
have been met and the grain delivered at the ''elevator," 
when it is paid for and the farmer receives the reward 
for his toil, there will be from $15 to $17.50 per acre 
for him. I should not like to say how many cases in 
the western provinces are similar to this one, I know 
there are many: one man, the fortunate possessor of 



THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 235 

some ready money, secured a farm of 640 acres at a 
cost of $5;000. In three years' time he had cut from it 
sufficient wheat to repay him in full; and all the while 
it gave him and his family a most comfortable Hving, 
besides leaving a surplus which enabled him to buy 
adjoining land. It is not surprising that land in the 
southern half of those three grain provinces is so valu- 
able that it rarely changes owners, and that already the 
quarter sections available for homestead entry are scarce 
indeed. 

Someone has said that the distinguishing mark of an 
EngHsh city is the consecration of a Bishop of the 
Church of England. I do not beheve I should dare 
to make a guess as to what distinguishes the American 
city; and as for the town in either country, it would be 
difficult to say just what is the trademark. But in the 
wheat field regions of the Dominion, after the railway 
company has knocked together the little shanty, which 
at first does duty as a station, and built the long plat- 
form for the accommodation of — no, not passengers 
at all, my readers — but the freight cars that are to 
be loaded with sacks of grain; the next thing to appear 
is the red grain-elevator. It will usually precede the 
canvas hotel; there is rarely a store until some time after 
the elevator has been in commission; and, best of all, 
the gin-palace that may be looked for with entire confi- 
dence in an American frontier settlement as the next 
human sign after the railway station, is not seen in 
Canada until the place has attained some size and the 
populace persuades the county officials to grant — what 
is not easy to get — a license. 



236 THE COMING CANADA 

If the traveller is so fortunate as to pass through these 
great Canadian wheat fields when the grain is in full 
head and coming to richest maturity, because of the 
long, bright, sunny days and cool nights (that meteoro- 
logical combination which is ideal for ripening and 
mellowing), it will be no uncommon sight to see the 
sturdy grain stretching away to right or left from the 
railway's right-of-way until its farther limit seems to 
blend with the horizon, and apparently not coming to 
an end even then. 

A few words should be said about a grain crop in these 
prairie provinces which has already attained great 
volume and is certain to be of even more value to the 
farmers than it now is. It is barley which, as a crop, 
cannot be over-estimated in its economic values when 
writing of this section; for in spite of the increasing 
employment of steam, the growing number of motor- 
cars, and the other apparent causes for the passing of 
the horse, that animal is increasing in numbers and barley 
is considered as being as good food for the horse as oats. 

The successful cultivation of wheat may be problemat- 
ical in some parts of that northern belt which experts 
have agreed is the probable limit of this crop economi- 
cally; but in that same section and even farther north 
there is no doubt about barley being a profitable crop. 
It is essentially a northern grain, and in the far North 
West it attains its highest development. It ripens, as 
a rule, fifteen days earHer than wheat and resists the 
frosts of early autumn better. In the Peace River 
Valley, and even farther north, barley weighs nearly, or 
quite, sixty pounds to the bushel (the maximum weight 



THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 237 

of barley, given in Haswell table, is fifty lbs. per bushel 
for California grain), and it is so plump and firm 
that it is attractive to everyone. Brewers have said 
that barley from Manitoba is, for malting purposes, 
fully equal to that from any other part of the world, 
and if this is true of the Manitoba barley, it must surely 
apply to that which comes from still farther north. 

Experts say that barley in the United States is ripened 
by the great heat of the sun before it has reached full 
maturity, and therefore the grain is somewhat shrivelled. 
This objection cannot be raised against barley from 
North Western Canada, because there the sun's heat 
during the long bright days and the short cool nights 
operate to bring the grain to fullest development and 
yet cause it to ripen slowly. 

The valley of the Red River of the North was thus 
described in 1874: ''Of the alluvial prairie of the Red 
River, much has already been said, and the uniform 
fertility of the soil cannot be exaggerated. The surface 
for a depth of from two to four feet is dark mould com- 
posed of the same material as the substratum, but 
mingled with much vegetable matter. When the sod 
has rotted, the soil appears as a light, friable mould, 
easily worked and most favourable for agriculture. The 
marly alluvium underlying the vegetable mould would 
in most countries be considered a soil of the best quality, 
and the fertility of the ground may therefore be con- 
sidered as practically inexhaustible." 

With reasonable allowances for local conditions, this 
description may be appplied to most of the hundreds 
of million acres of the arable soil in Canada's Fertile 



238 THE COMING CANADA 

Northland. But that same characteristic of seeming 
inexhaustibleness was likewise attributed to California 
wheat fields, to Virginia tobacco lands, and to other 
agricultural regions, not only in America but in other 
parts of this Earth as well. Yet carelessness in culti- 
vating, disregard of rotation, constantly taking away 
and never restoring, neglect to let the fields lie fallow, 
have proved disastrous elsewhere; and the same mis- 
fortune must follow even in the fertile North West of 
Canada, if the same course is followed. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
A MODEL PROVINCE: MANITOBA 

THE first permanent white settlement in the district 
which is now the Province of Manitoba, was the 
Selkirk Colony which was founded by immigrants from 
Europe; most of them being Scotchmen. It was located 
on both banks of the Red River of the North, a short 
distance below the centre of the present city of Winnipeg, 
and at that time, 1812, was called Fort Garry. Many 
lineal descendants of those first Selkirk settlers still 
live on the homesteads which their ancestors acquired 
a century ago; but their comfortable dwellings and the 
spacious appointments of their households are in marked 
contrast with the conditions under which the Earl of 
Selkirk's immigrants at first struggled. 

I do not overlook the fact that nearly eighty years 
before Lord Selkirk commenced his colonising efforts, 
Pierre-Gauthier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye, 
had made his way northward and westward from Lake 
Superior, reaching Lake Winnipeg in 1733. ^^^ Y^^^r 
later he built a fort near the site of the present Fort 
Alexander, which is just up from the mouth of Winnipeg 
River, that empties into Travers Bay, the southeastern 
part of the lake. Four years later, October, 1738, 
Verendrye established another trading post, which he 



240 THE COMING CANADA 

called Fort Raye, at the junction of the Red and Assini- 
boine rivers, on the site of the present city of Winnipeg. 

After the transfer of proprietorship from French to 
British hands, 1763, this nearer region of the west rapidly 
developed as a fur-trading centre, and it was there that 
the rivalry between the Hudson's Bay and the North 
West companies was probably as keen as in any part 
of British America. There were a very few traders, 
both French and British, the latter mostly Scotchmen, 
in the region. Gradually, however, other immigrants 
who were satisfied to make their living by farming came 
into the Red River region. These men frequently took 
Indian girls as their wives (the word is used somewhat 
euphemistically) and from these unions sprang a race 
of MetiSy or half-breeds. 

The Hudson's Bay Company had been very gentle 
in its treatment of all people within its jurisdiction, 
whether European, Indians, or half-castes; but when its 
rule was supplanted by that of the Canadian officials, 
the zeal of these last led them to act somewhat hastily, 
causing eventually a revolt of the Metis under the 
leadership of one of their number, Louis Riel. The 
*'Riel Rebellion," as it is called, had much influence 
upon the early history of Manitoba (and it contributed 
not a little towards strengthening the bonds of the 
then newly founded Dominion). It would be interest- 
ing to consider the rebellion fully here, but space for- 
bids; yet I recommend my readers to look it up. 

Through its resident agent at Fort Garry, the Hudson's 
Bay Company continued to exercise control over the 
Selkirk colony (as well as over all its vast possessions) 



A MODEL province: MANITOBA 24I 

until 1870, when the whole northern and western parts 
of British North America, excepting British Columbia 
which had already attained the dignity of being an 
independent colony, came under the control of the 
Dominion Government. The colony (Manitoba) was 
then known as Assiniboia (a name which was subse- 
quently applied, for a short time, to part of the country 
immediately west). 

The Hudson's Bay Company received a miUion and 
a half dollars for its landed rights; but it stipulated for 
two sections (one mile square each, i.e., 640 acres) in 
each of the six-mile square townships which were to be 
surveyed and set off in thirty-six sections as the basis 
of title for private ownership in the future. It was also 
given small tracts at each of its trading-posts. Thus, 
in addition to its liberal money indemnity, the Company 
retains, in the enormous territory over which it was 
permitted by the terms of an elastic charter to exercise 
proprietory rights, about one-fifteenth of the land all 
told, and much of Manitoba is in this chain of title. 

When Manitoba was made a Province in 1870, and 
became a political unit of the Dominion, its area was 
much smaller than it now is. Indeed, the boundaries 
have been changed several times in these forty-three 
years. At present they are: on the south, the 49th 
parallel of N. lat., which divides Manitoba from Minne- 
sota and North Dakota; on the west, the meridian of 
ioi°2o' W. northward to the 60th parallel of lat.; on 
the north, that 60th parallel to Hudson Bay, the shore 
of which is followed southeasterly until the northwestern 
boundary of Ontario Province is reached, at a point 



242 THE COMING CANADA 

which is about 56° 40' N. and 89° W. The line then 
goes southwest to the meridian of 95° 12' W., and thence 
the eastern boundary goes due south to the Lake of 
the Woods, and the United States. 

This very great expansion, whereby the area of the 
Province is nearly quadrupled, was made by the Domin- 
ion Government in 191 1, and has not yet appeared on 
the general maps. The area of the Province, before the 
expansion, was 74,000 square miles; about one-fifth 
was water; what it is now has not yet been accurately 
determined, but it must be considerably over one- 
quarter of a milHon square miles. 

"The name Manitoba sprang from the union of two 
Indian words, Manito, ^the Great Spirit,' and Waba, 
Hhe Narrows' of the lake which may readily be seen on 
the map. The well known strait was a sacred place 
to the Crees and Saulteaus who, impressed by the 
weird sounds made by the wind as it rushed through 
the narrows, as superstitious children of the prairie, 
called them Manito-Waba, or 'The Great Spirit's Nar- 
rows.' The name, arising from this unusual sound, has 
been by metonymy translated into 'God's Voice.' 
The word was afterwards contracted into its present 
form." * 

The general physical character of the Province is 
that of a level plain sloping gently towards the north. 
The whole district, of which Manitoba forms but a 
part, was evidently at one time a vast lake basin. The 
present rich soils, which are such an important factor 
in the economics and wealth of Manitoba, were derived 

* Enc. Brit., nth ed. 



A MODEL province: MANITOBA 243 

from the silts deposited during that long period of time 
when even what is now dry land was under water. 
Apparently somewhat incongruous as it sounds, yet there 
is undoubtedly much logic in the statement that the 
cause of the poor water and alkaline soil in numerous 
localities can be traced, in every instance, to the exceed- 
ing richness of the soil; and so long as it retains its salts, 
so long will it be noted for fertihty. 

It is amusing to recall the fact that less than a score 
of years ago, there met in the city of Chicago a com- 
mittee of wheat growers who gravely, but no doubt 
honestly, recorded their opinion that ''Our Northern 
tier of States is too far north to grow wheat successfully," 
and yet they spoke from experience. Now, about a 
decade before that Committee put itself on record, a 
competent observer had expressed his opinion of the 
Red River of the North Valley thus: ''Take one-half 
of the entire area, or 3,400 square miles, equalling 
2,176,000 acres, and for simplicity of calculation, let it 
be supposed to be sown entirely in wheat. Then, at 
the rate of seventeen bushels per acre, which, according 
to Prof. Thomas, is the average yield for Minnesota — 
the crop of the Red River Valley would amount to 
40,992,000 bushels." But the experience of twenty 
years and longer has proved that when intelhgence is 
combined with energy in cultivating this land, the 
average crop of wheat runs higher than seventeen 
bushels to the acre; and what is more important, the 
northern limit of wheat cultivation has been pushed so 
much farther north that the conclusion of the committee, 
to which reference has just been made, seems almost 



244 THE COMING CANADA 

laughable. Mrs. Cameron * says: ''For years Winnipeg 
was considered the northern limit of wheat-growth, the 
Arctic Circle of endeavour. Then the line of limitation 
was pushed farther back until it is Edmonton-on-the- 
Saskatchewan that is declared ' Farthest North.' To-day 
we are embarking on a journey which is to reach two 
thousand miles due north of Edmonton." 

Impossible is an elusive word when we wish to limit 
man's potentialities in some directions, even if he is a 
miserably weak creature with but a brief span of life; 
and this province of Manitoba stands out conspicuously 
as a monument to what man's determination, when 
pushed along the line of little (not least) resistance, can 
accomplish. A Winnipeg poHceman gave a pithy and 
characteristically witty definition of that success when 
he answered an EngHshman's drawled out question: 
"What makes Winnipeg?" The visitor's astonishment 
at the size and activity of the ''city in the wilderness" 
could not be suppressed, although he had tried hard to 
do so. Bobby looked at his interlocutor with a quizzical 
smile, stooped to scrape a lump of mud from his boot- 
heel, and replied: "This is the sordid dhross and filthy 
lucre that kapes our nineteen chartered banks and their 
wan-and-twinty suburbhan branches going! Just be- 
yant is wan hundred million acres of it; and the dhirty 
shtuff grows forty bushels of whate to the acre. Don't 
be like the remittance man from England, son," with 
another quizzing look at the checked suit of his ques- 
tioner; " shure they turn up the bottom of their throwsies 
so high that divil a bit of the dhross sticks to them 

♦ Op. cit. 



A MODEL province: MANITOBA 245 

anywhere!" I may explain that a ''remittance man" 
is usually a younger son who has been shipped away 
from England to get him out of bad company. He is 
provided with sufficient money just to clothe and feed 
him; and ninety-nine out of a hundred never amount 
to anything. Manitoba owes no part of her importance 
to the ''remittance man." 

The staunch Canadian does not adopt the Encyclo- 
paedia's phraseology when discussing Manitoba and call 
it one of the western provinces of the Dominion. He 
speaks of it as the middle one or the middle western 
one, or "The Model Province." When it was admitted 
into the Dominion in 1870, it was the fifth province in 
numerical order. It then had an area of only 13,500 
square miles, and extended just far enough northward 
from the International Boundary to take in the southern- 
most bights of lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba; its popu- 
lation was then but about 12,000, and nearly all of them 
were Indians or Metis, There must now be well on 
towards half a million inhabitants (quite likely more, 
since the increase in size), and the Indian element has 
so shrunk in ratio that it is almost negligible. 

The government of the province is administered by a 
Lieutenant-Governor, who is appointed by the Governor- 
General for a term of five years. With the lieutenant- 
governor is associated an executive council of six 
members, selected by himself with the approval of the 
Ottawa Government, who are responsible to the local 
legislature. This is a single body chosen by the franchise 
holders, and at present consisting of forty- two members; 
but this number will doubtless be increased in order to 



246 THE COMING CANADA 

permit of representation from the great territory which 
has been added. Manitoba sends four members to 
the Dominion Senate and ten representatives to the 
Dominion House of Commons. What provision will 
be made for readjusting the provincial representation 
in the Dominion ParHament, now that the areas of 
Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba have been so greatly 
increased, I am not prepared to say at this moment. 

The province's position, both socially and politically, 
is almost unique. Because of the astonishing mixture 
of nationalities which the population indicates and the 
consequent differences of religious belief, either intense 
or mild, there have been frequent explosions which have 
had wide-reaching influence. Furthermore, because of 
the geographical position, making the province truly 
the gateway to the great west, there have been many 
political agitations which have made the district a veri- 
table storm centre. Added to these facts is the further 
one that the phenomenal progress during the last decade 
or so has raised up many important local economic 
disputes which have yet to be solved — education, 
municipal ownership, further railway and waterway 
expansion are some of these. 

The development of Manitoba, region and province, 
from the very beginning of British administration was 
rapid; but as soon as the building of the Canadian 
Pacific Railway was assured, progress in every aspect 
became so phenomenal as to make conservative people 
gasp. The Fort Garry of less than half a century ago 
has been transformed into the City of Winnipeg with a 
population of over 100,000, which presents in its streets, 



A MODEL province: MANITOBA 247 

buildings, municipal facilities, industries of every kind, 
railways — for the city is now a division headquarters 
for the three great transcontinental systems discussed 
in a previous chapter — and in fact every essential, all 
the aspects of a city which is, and is recognised as, an 
important economic centre. 

This importance of the capital is reflected in many 
ways throughout the entire province, only two of which 
I shall mention. Since grain, and especially wheat, is 
the foundation of the province's prosperity, we find 
innumerable elevators and flouring-mills in all parts; 
even the smallest town is, in its way, a miniature Win- 
nipeg. The local branches and agencies of the char- 
tered banks are so numerous in the smaller places 
that they indicate somewhat of the volume of busi- 
ness. An illuminating evidence of Manitoba's mate- 
rial development is to be found in the fact that in 
1906 a pamphlet of some thirty pages, illustrated with 
several scores of plates, was issued to show the *' Pub- 
lic Buildings erected and improved by the government 
of Manitoba." 

A few of the widely scattered fur-trading posts of 
half a century and more ago have been developed into 
towns besides the provincial capital. Brandon is 
approaching the 25,000 mark. Portage la Prairie 
and St. Boniface will soon have more than 10,000 each; 
and a number of towns along the railways, the Grand 
Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern especially, 
are growing so rapidly that statistics cannot be penned. 
One of the most pleasing evidences of the well-being 
of this province, is the fact that while there is a strong 



248 THE COMING CANADA 

liking for municipal ownership of various public utilities, 
the tax rates are still comparatively low. 

I do not wish to intimate that pleasing hospitality is 
not a conspicuous trait with all Canadians — my own 
experiences and the testimony of many others would 
contradict any such imputation, were it made. But 
I have good reason for saying that throughout Manitoba, 
and especially at Winnipeg, the stranger who brings 
letters of introduction is received with open arms and 
the entertainment offered will be hearty and varied. 
Whatever the visitor's particular taste may be, there 
will be found plenty of ways to cater to it. If it is 
outdoor sport, there is fishing, shooting, big game hunt- 
ing, coursing, and cross-country riding, at the proper 
season. If the guest's taste inclines towards athletics, 
in summer there are cricket, lacrosse, golf, baseball, all 
the games that appeal to the younger; but cricket in 
Canada, as in Great Britain — and indeed throughout 
the British Empire — is not at all monopoHsed by the 
youngsters. One often sees men whose years are counted 
by the three score or more, batting, bowling, and field- 
ing with the best. The winter sports are all that the 
Dominion can offer, as will be suggested in the next 
chapter. The clubman can have no cause to com- 
plain of lack of opportunity at Winnipeg. The scholar 
and Hterary man will be sure to make the acquaintance 
of congenial spirits. Those who like to sip from the 
cup which the frivolous forms of society hold forth, are 
welcomed and may dance and flirt to their heart's con- 
tent. In fact, Manitoba is a surprise and a delight 
in every way. 



CHAPTER XIX 

CANADA IN WINTER 

IT is, I think, recognised as a fact that if the stranger 
wishes to see the people of a given country in their 
true social environment, he must visit that country 
during the season in which the leisure or semi-leisure 
classes, ^'society" in one word, give themselves up to 
social gatherings and festivities which are either im- 
possible or unpopular at other times. This rule, if it 
is admitted to be such — and I am assuming it, at any 
rate — appHes to regions of the globe in which there 
are marked climatic changes. In the tropics, there is 
practically no such change: there may be a rainy season 
alternating with a dry one. During the former the 
natives may or may not be active, but it is usually not 
the time to see equatorial regions in the greatest luxury 
of tlieir vegetation, when fruits are ripe and the people 
are enjoying the good gifts which bounteous Nature 
lavishly bestows upon them. 

I know, from personal experience, that the most 
favourable time to visit the semi-tropical regions is mid- 
summer; while to study the life of those people in Russia 
and Canada who figure in society, the proper season is 
precisely the opposite one; in other words, it is mid- 
winter. I am quite aware that some peoples exactly 
reverse this order of procedure, flying from Russia, when 



250 THE COMING CANADA 

the first hard frost and snow come, to the soft, balmy 
airs of the Mediterranean Rivieras, and seeking winter 
sunshine on both coasts of the tideless sea, even going 
well into Africa in their quest. I know, too, that some 
Canadians and New Englanders seek relief from the 
bitterness of winter in their homelands, by going to 
Florida, California, Mexico, or elsewhere. But it needs 
no declaration from me to show that these quests are 
entirely subjective; they do not contemplate mingling 
to any great extent in the Hfe of the peoples amongst 
whom the seekers are to sojourn for a short time in their 
selfish desire to secure personal comfort. Let us entirely 
leave out of consideration the unfortunate invalid who 
must try to escape the clinching, shrivelling chill of 
winter or the enervating heat of summer. 

The peoples of both Canada and Russia who are able, 
because of wealth and position, to make society, are the 
very ones who go away from their homes during the 
short summer. They do this for two reasons: first, 
because in that brief summer the heat is often trying 
and not infrequently the physical arrangement of 
domiciles makes it difficult to be really comfortable at 
home; second, that is the time when travelling is least 
liable to the interruptions of the weather which the 
gales and snowstorms of winter often bring. I know 
that many of my countrymen go to Canada for the 
summer to the coolness, comfort, and freedom of out- 
door life. I have done it myself several times; but it 
is not the right time to see any of the Canadian social 
centres at their best. 

The Dominion capital, Ottawa, is a pleasant place in 



* «<'' 




Ploughing at Fort Smith, 6o° N. 




r^:^w'€' '■ 



i'V C- * 



,^fsmk._^_^ 'f^-^:^: 



,ti:» 







Smith Landing, Great Slave River, 6o° N. 



CANADA IN WINTER 251 

summer; the days are warm (sometimes they are piping 
hot!) and one can go abroad unhesitatingly, while the 
nights are cool enough to make at least a thin blanket 
agreeable; but there is Httle to be seen of the official 
social life. Almost surely the Governor- General will 
be absent; for at that season — when Parliament is 
in recess — he is making official visits to the provinces 
in order that he may see for himself — not how the 
people live and move and have their being — but how 
the local affairs are being administered. The Depart- 
ment Chiefs will equally surely be absent; either seek- 
ing relaxation with their families at seacoast, lakeside, 
or river resorts or in Europe, or imitating the example 
set by their official head, and making tours of inspection. 

The society leaders beyond the charmed circle of 
department Hfe follow these examples, and so it goes. 

What has been said of the capital applies, in a general 
way, to the other cities: even the mere sightseer will 
notice that in summer his opportunities to see the people 
are not so good as in winter. Is it Montreal, the com- 
mercial metropolis? The streets, the parks, the churches, 
the resorts seem to be singularly deserted. Is it the 
picturesque, quaint Quebec? There is a marked apathy 
to be noticed in and about the citadel, and the crowd 
on Dufferin Terrace is palpably not composed of resi- 
dents. If there is a semblance of gaiety at other places, 
it too often betrays the mark of having been arranged 
for the special benefit of the tourist, who is expected to 
pay for the extra effort : there is none of the spontaneity 
of custom. Is it the active, scholarly Toronto? The 
silence which overhangs the deserted University campus, 



252 THE COMING CANADA 

is to be noticed as spreading throughout the residential 
sections, and even to penetrate into other parts of the 
city. It is the same wherever the visitor goes. He can 
see the country and the natural sights; the lakes, rivers, 
waterfalls, mountains and forests, all such things will 
be attractive; and because the farmers may have a 
little leisure, perhaps the visitor will have the oppor- 
tunity of meeting some of them, and they are always 
interesting. 

But there is another phase of social hfe which asserts 
itself only in winter; this hfe does not appear in its 
fullest glory until the snow has come in quantity suffi- 
cient to make the roads fitted for the sleighs and the 
hills ready for the toboggans. Then the bustle and 
crowds in the city streets and along the suburban roads 
are most exhilarating. The motor car is put out of 
commission save when the street-cleaning force in the 
larger cities has swept away the snow and such locomo- 
tion is again possible. The horse comes once again to 
his own, and it really seems as if he understands his 
privileges and restored importance. From the dainty, 
saucy cutter, drawn by a single steed, to the great omni- 
bus-sleighs with two or four horses, or the even larger 
box-sleigh piled up with straw and buffalo-robes, and 
filled with a party of merry youngsters off for a "straw- 
ride," there is to be seen somewhere every conceivable 
form of vehicle that can be put upon runners. The 
princely sledge of the Court nobles in Russia, with tall 
plumes waving from the sleigh itself and from the 
shoulders of the three horses, driver and footman 
resplendent in Astrakan and bright colours, is matched 



CANADA IN WINTER 253 

by the equipages of the Canadian official and aristocrat. 
The liveries are as effective, even if widely different 
in character. The furs of the occupants of the sleighs 
are as luxurious at Ottawa as they are at St. Petersburg, 
and the gaiety is equal in every way. 

Every Canadian city asserts itself when the jollity 
of winter is the topic of conversation; and in a way 
each is right. But it has always seemed to me that 
Montreal's claim has the most substantial foundation. 
The business section may be made just as disagreeable 
and quite as dirty by a fall of snow, as any place one 
knows; yet Montreal is singularly fortunate in having, 
almost at its centre, such a magnificent winter play- 
ground as Mount Royal. The drives approaching it 
and all round its sides are so nicely graded that when 
the snow is properly packed, the cutters, family sledges, 
box-sleighs, and all vehicles of the kind go spinning 
along as if it were no effort at all for the horses to draw 
them. Sometimes a reckless or incompetent driver lets 
his horse go too fast along a downgrade at the end of 
which is a sharp curve: then there is a spill, but inas- 
much as the snowbank into which the occupants of 
the sleigh are pitched makes a soft bed upon which to 
fall, these mishaps are not often attended with serious 
consequence. 

The lower slopes of Mount Royal, in all directions, 
are taken possession of by the children, who are con- 
tented with mild coasting; but the more adventurous 
youths of both sexes and indeed (ought it to be whis- 
pered?) many grown men and women who might be 
supposed to have reached such discretion as not to take 



254 THE COMING CANADA 

unnecessary risks, drag their toboggans far up towards 
the summit of the mountain, where there is one of the 
best slides in all the Dominion. It carries the toboggan 
down the southern slope, that is for the most part gentle; 
but there is a jump or two which make the novice catch 
his breath as the sled plunges down. Long ago, this 
slide used to reach far out upon the plain stretching off 
towards the river; but the growth of the city and the 
extension of tramway lines have necessitated restricting 
it to Mount Royal Park; there is even yet enough of it 
to give the rarest, most exciting few minutes. 

One of the most popular and exhilarating winter sports 
has been adopted from something which was a very 
stern and hard necessity to traveller, voyageur, or coureur 
des hois in former times. I mean snowshoeing. Every 
village and town in the Dominion seems to have its 
snowshoe club, and the larger cities count them by the 
scores. There are more than twenty-five in Montreal 
and its immediate suburbs. Each club has its own 
distinguishing uniform. Most of us know what it is 
generally: for the young women (because the club 
membership is rarely restricted to one sex) there is the 
long, Neapolitan, knitted cap which often pulls down 
quite to the shoulders, leaving only a part of the face 
visible; a thick, warm jersey; a jacket made from a 
bright-coloured blanket, and a short, warm skirt. The 
stockings, usually uniform in pattern and showing the 
Club colours, must be thick and warm; and the feet 
are encased in moccasins, because a stiff-soled boot is 
an impossibility for comfortable snowshoeing. The 
men are pretty much the same in appearance, so far as 



CANADA IN WINTER 255 

head and body go; but the skirt is replaced by warm 
knickerbockers. Stockings and moccasins are again 
similar. Nowadays, some of the most sensible girls 
are wearing a regular bloomer costume. Snowshoeing 
is a most delightful winter sport and frequently the club 
will go out ten or fifteen miles in the afternoon, sup at 
some jolly Httle country hostelry — or maybe the club 
will have its own clubhouse away from town for such 
rendezvous — and come back in the dazzling moonlight 
or beneath the twinkhng stars and the Aurora boreaHs 
of a Canadian winter's night, with which nothing in 
the south can compare in brilliancy. 

Snowshoeing, with its shufiiing, sliding motion, looks 
to be a very easy thing to do; but let none of my readers 
jump to the conclusion that it is something anybody 
can. do without half trying; although that is precisely 
what every novice does. When a person has the snow- 
shoes tied to his feet for the first time, his first convic- 
tion is that the wretched things are insecurely fastened, 
they wobble so at the heels, and he feels sure they will 
come off at the first movement. When assured there is 
no danger of this, he next proceeds to attempt to walk, 
gets his feet hopelessly tangled up, and promptly comes 
a cropper, while the experienced onlookers laugh in 
pleasant derision. The necessary shuffle is one of the 
most difficult feats to accomplish that feet ever essayed. 
Once mastered, however, there are few motions so 
delightfully exhilarating, and the speed with which one 
can move over the snow, particularly when it is lightly 
crusted over, is astonishing. I have known plenty of 
men and women who think that snowshoeing is better 



256 THE COMING CANADA 

sport than skating. Certainly it possesses the great 
advantage of having a much wider horizon than the 
ordinary river, lake, or pond gives the skater. Ski-ing 
(pronounced skee-ing, see dictionary) is, of course, first 
cousin to snowshoeing. 

Skating is so universal that I hardly take the trouble 
to mention it. Not only on open ponds and rivers do 
the crowds gather for this popular sport, but there are, 
in the cities certainly, covered rinks which either belong 
to exclusive clubs, or are reserved on certain afternoons 
and evenings by a club for its members only. Of course 
hockey asserts itself when skating is mentioned; and 
other sports on the ice, such as Curling, are suggested. 
It is presumptuous for an American to describe this 
game, when competent Scots have exhausted their efforts 
to laud it, both in prose and poetry. Yet since many 
people do not know just what the game is, I give a brief 
description. A rink is 42 yards long and 4 yards wide. 
The tees, or goals, are 40 yards apart. The stones were 
originally waterworn boulders or granite blocks bored 
through to let the player's thumb get a grip. These 
primitive stones are now replaced by beautifully rounded, 
flattened, and highly poUshed ones into which a handle, 
turned at a right angle to the diameter, is set. A stone 
may not be more than 50 pounds in weight; the circum- 
ference not over 36 inches; and the thickness must not 
be less than one-eighth the greatest circumference. 
These stones, for each player must be suppHed with 
two, cost, including handles, from $10 to $25 a pair. The 
object of the game is to curl or slide the stone from 
behind and to the side of one tee and make it stop as 



CANADA IN WINTER 257 

near as possible to the centre of a six-inch circle at the 
other tee. Stones that go out of bounds or stop short 
of the ''Hog-score/' a line defining the limits of the tee, 
are '^dead," and must be removed. It is a man's game, 
and a strong man at that. Many songs have been 
written in praise of it; the authors contending that it 
is a promoter of mental enjoyment, bodily health, and 
the best of good fellowship. Where the game originated 
is not known; but it is associated in our minds with 
Scotland, and it is in the land of heather that it is most 
popular. There are so many Scots in Canada that it 
is not surprising to find hundreds of curling clubs in the 
Dominion. It will be noticed that I say nothing about 
the ''Ice Palace" when writing of Montreal in winter. 
The omission is intentional. The beautiful and novel 
structure of crystal ice, reared at a great expense on the 
frozen surfacfe of the St. Lawrence River, was never a 
profitable investment, and it advertised Canada in the 
wrong way. It has not been made for several years and 
I think will not be again. 

If the visitor wishes to see the St. Lawrence River in 
the perfection of its winter aspect, he will go to Quebec, 
which is farther north than Montreal, and where the 
cold is steadier and lasts longer. The ups and downs, 
the ins and outs of the town lend themselves admirably 
to picturesque winter effects; but they also add to the 
difficulties of getting about by both man and beast; 
how the horses manage to negotiate the steep and 
narrow roadways is a marvel. Life is even now more 
primitive in Quebec city and province than elsewhere; 
few of the elegant sleighs of the political or commercial 



258 THE COMING CANADA 

capital are to be seen. In the country there are grand 
opportunities for enjoyment, only the stranger must 
be able to speak French if he is to get the best from the 
habitants. The \dew (from Dufferin Terrace) over the 
frozen St. Lawrence, rigid above the city, broken and 
churning it may be below, is a rare one. 

If the stranger seeks the American maxima in winter 
scenery and snow effects, and has time and means, let 
him take a Canadian Pacific Railway train and go well 
into the Rocky Mountains or the Selkirks. He need 
have no apprehension as to physical comforts. The 
train is entirely vestibuled — for I am assuming that 
the tourist travels by an express so that passing from 
end to end involves no exposure. When there is not a 
dining-car at Ms service, the train will halt at a station 
where there is one of the Company's hotels or restaurants 
which serve a meal to satisfy the veriest Lucullus. If 
*'Lucullus does not sup with Lucullus," the companion 
at table will be an interesting feature of a remarkable 
journey. Let the traveller ahght, to stay a day or two, 
at one of the stations near the snowsheds. Here, again, 
there is no danger that physical comfort will not be 
admirably cared for, even if the accommodations are 
not quite the same as those which the Chateau Fron- 
tenac or the Place Viger supply. 

Imagine, then, a rather steep mountain side covered 
with snow so deep that all traces of the great snowsheds 
are absolutely obhterated, the smooth white surface 
spreading downward as if there were nothing to break 
the contour, save the bushes and small trees which must 
be pictured in fancy, for they are out of sight. Remem- 



CANADA IN WINTER 259 

ber that these snowsheds are built of heavy timber, 
strong enough to support the weight of this mass of 
snow and to resist the impact when the sliding snow 
drives down in a tremendous avalanche. They are tall 
enough and sufficiently wide to admit the largest engine 
and the broadest coach or freight car, and yet leave 
space above the smokestack to let sparks fly freely, and 
for all ordinary oscillation. This gives an idea of the 
size of these structures; and thus it is possible to con- 
ceive of what must be the depth of snow to obliterate 
them completely. There will be other awe-inspiring 
snow and ice effects to interest the visitor. 

There is Httle doubt that for the young and active, 
and for the old who are vigorous and hearty, the Cana- 
dian winter offers plenty of opportunity for sport and 
pastime in the open. I imagine that many of my 
readers will recall pleasing demonstration of this in 
books and magazine stories which tell of Dominion 
life in that season. Why Americans should go to the 
Tyrol for winter sport, I cannot imagine. 

But there is another phase of winter's social life which 
appeals with almost equal force to old and young, 
although of course each class looks upon interior festivi- 
ties from a different standpoint. Winter is the time 
when most Canadians are at home. I know there are 
some who like to get just as far away as possible from 
the searching, marrow-curdling cold; but these are the 
anaemic or sybaritish; and the true Canadian does not 
hesitate to sneer at them. The capital, Ottawa, shows 
many forms of winter's social gaieties. Around the 
Governor- General's home gathers the exclusive and 



26o THE COMING CANADA 

official set: yet the democratic spirit has so pervaded 
this circle, that it includes some who are not distinguished 
by any high-sounding titles; and there is really less of 
snobbishness about it than was conspicuous at the 
"White House Court" within recent years. Americans 
of social position and culture are made most welcome, 
and I cannot imagine any more delightful winter life 
than Christmastide at Ottawa offers. 

As with the capital, so with all the large cities, only 
there is lacking in each that special glamour which 
shines from delightful Rideau Hall. There is, however, 
just a suggestion of that semi-Court life at each of the 
Provincial capitals, provided the Lieutenant-Governor 
is disposed to have it so. The residences of those who 
make any pretence to social life are all well provided 
with heating-plants; and there will always be found 
that almost indispensable accessory to aesthetic comfort, 
the open fireplace with its blazing logs, about which 
hosts and guests gather when the function is of smaller 
dimensions than a ball or rout. If the stranger is so 
fortunate as to receive an invitation from a British or 
French host who is interested in the history or folklore 
of the Dominion, it will be round the hearth that the 
past will be made to live itself over again. I know that 
while I am always glad to go to Canada at any season, 
it is upon my winter visits that I look back with greatest 
pleasure and most satisfaction. 



CHAPTER XX 
SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 

THE number of really old towns in the Dominion 
is not very great. How could it be, when we 
consider the methods followed by the French in their 
attempt at colonisation? But if we bear in mind the 
measure of interest that hangs round the half-dozen or 
so places which are to be considered in this chapter, 
there is material enough to fill a dozen volumes. Of 
Quebec alone so much has been written — and the 
subject has not yet been exhausted — that there are 
books enough to fill a small bookcase. There is a period 
of more than a century and a half from the date of 
Quebec's birth, 1608, until — I am not going to say 
death — her marriage to Great Britain, in 1763, by the 
old custom of capture. The story of this ''Great Mother 
of Canada" is alive with thrilling, dramatic incidents 
for the pen of historian, the verse of poet, the plot of 
novelist. Individual impressions of to-day seem to be 
but tame and uninteresting, when we have at our dis- 
posal for a study of Quebec's creation, development, 
and vicissitudes, such material as the Relations of Jesuit 
Fathers, who were pioneers both in evangelisation and 
in discovery. Of Francis Parkman's books, although 
some of his statements are criticised adversely and his 
conclusions disputed, it is but truth to say that they 



262 THE COMING CANADA 

did for Canada as much as Prescott's volumes did for 
Mexico. I mention only a few more writers who have 
gleaned from earlier ones, yet added picturesque touches 
of their own: William Kingsford, Sir James Macpherson 
Le Moine, Dr. A. G. Doughty, Sir Gilbert Parker.* 
Beyond this I dare not go, for a complete bibHography 
of Quebec alone would cover pages. Many important 
names are omitted, not from lack of appreciation or 
willingness to comment, but because of the limitations 
of space. The narrative of the five sieges that the old 
town has sustained — 1629, 1690, 1759, 1760, 1775 — 
would fill several volumes; and that of probably the 
most famous of all, the great Battle of the Plains of 
Abraham, when both victorious and vanquished leaders 
lost their Hves, is so overflowing with interest, event, 
tragedy, victory, discomfiture, that it has served as the 
subject for a whole volume unto itself. Still, is it not 
correct to say that never yet has the fortress of Quebec 
succumbed to actual capture by assault? 

If Quebec no longer alone guards the gateway to 
Canada, it is because the developments of the last quarter 
of a century have opened to the visitor other means of 
ingress than that of the St. Lawrence River; but if that 
stream is ''the life of Canada," as it has been aptly 
called, it is at Quebec the pulse still beats; and there 
need be little regret on the part of her citizens as they 
see the trans-Atlantic steamers pass on their way to 
or from the commercial metropoHs of the Dominion, 
Montreal. 

If the birth of Quebec was in the year 1608, the con- 
* For titles of their books, see bibliography at end of this volume. 



SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 263 

ception may be said to have taken place more than half 
a century before, when, in 1535, Jacques Cartier wintered 
at Stadacona. That was an event of great importance 
for the future of Canada. It takes us back to a date 
only forty-three years after Columbus' first memorable 
voyage. It antedates by seventy-two years the found- 
ing of Jamestown, Va. (it was nine years later than the 
settlement of the Spanish colony on the site of James- 
town, soon abandoned), by eighty-eight years the found- 
ing of New Amsterdam (New York City). It was 
before the date of St. Augustine, Fla., 1565. Quebec 
has the right, therefore, to call herself one of the oldest 
cities founded by Europeans in America, if she may 
not boast of being the very oldest. 

Certainly there is no city in North America that is 
more famous historically, and in all the world there are 
few more picturesquely located. From the promontory 
where stands the Chateau Frontenac, one of the Cana- 
dian Pacific Railway's hotels, and especially from the 
windows of one of the towers, there is — on a fair day 
— a view that is not surpassed easily and is rarely 
matched. Down the river over Isle Royale, with a 
hint of the Falls of Montmorency; across the St. Law- 
rence into the rolling country that stretches away to 
the Height of Land forming the International Boundary; 
up the river past the Plains of Abraham; northward 
into the Lauren tian Hills; on every side there is scenery 
in which grandeur and pastoral simplicity are blended 
with historical recollections that form visual and mental 
pictures of unequalled brilliancy. 

The bold promontory, on which the Chateau stands, 



264 THE COMING CANADA 

naturally divides the city into two parts, the Citadel 
and the Lower Town. If there is perhaps a hint at 
regularity in the streets of the former, those of the latter 
are a maze so intricate that none but the habitue can 
safely trust himself alone in them. But getting lost 
in the streets of Quebec is half the fun of a visit: the old 
and the new jostle each other in strange propinquity, 
and yet at every turn there crops up something which 
recalls an event of years ago. 

With modem Quebec is closely associated the history 
of the reigning house of the British Empire, for the 
Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's father, when com- 
manding the 7th Royal Fusiliers, lived for four years in 
the city. 

It seems a pity that De Monts and Champlain should 
have discarded the pleasing Indian name, Woolastook, 
for the principal river of New Brunswick, and rechrist- 
ened the stream St. John, just because they chanced to 
discover it on the anniversary of St. John, June 24th, 
in 1604, and that the English did not restore the original 
name. Just where the town of St. John stands, river 
and tide waters meet, and such is the strength of the 
latter's flow — for it rises thirty-five feet in the har- 
bour — that when nearly full it turns back the stream, 
making even the river proper appear to flow upstream. 
Near this intermittent fall or rapid is a promontory on 
which stands the older and more important part of the 
City of St. John. It extends onto other heights, and 
St. John may truthfully be called a city built on hills. 
From many points charming views are had of distant 
heights crowned by buildings which recall old times. 



SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 265 

These vistas are rendered particularly effective when, 
at sunset, the eyes look through the forest of masts, 
spars, and rigging of the vessels in the docks. 

Mr. Allen Jack writes: ''It is almost, if not quite, 
certain that for centuries before the coming of Europeans 
the Indians, temporarily or permanently, used some 
portion of the shores of the Harbour of St. John as a 
resting or dwelling place. The French, almost from the 
discovery of the locahty, occupied one or more sites 
contiguous to the harbour, partly for commercial or 
missionary purposes, but mainly for mihtary reasons. 
Of all the Frenchmen who lived there, the Sieur la Tour, 
whose noble wife once fiercely defended, and afterwards 
heroically failed in defence of, the Fort at St. John 
bearing her husband's name, was probably the only one 
who possessed true commercial instincts and capacity. '* 

St. John's right to a place in this chapter comes as 
much from the interest which attaches to its neighbour- 
hood as from the record of the town itself. The real 
history of the place begins with the arrival of some 
United Empire Loyalists, about 5000 of whom came 
there from the United States after the Revolution, 1783. 
A number of St. John's citizens have achieved distinction 
in Canadian society and politics. It is not a place of 
conspicuous wealth, although many citizens are possessed 
of means: on the other hand, there are few abjectly 
poor. It is really amazing that, where there are at all 
times sailors from all over the world, one policeman for 
every thousand persons is sufficient to preserve the 
peace. 

Hochelaga, the Indian village which stood on the site 



266 THE COMING CANADA 

of the lower part of Montreal, but which disappeared 
quickly, was known to the early French. It was intended 
that Montreal should be ^'Ville Marie," when, in 1642, 
Paul Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, one of the 
Associates of the Society formed to colonise the Island of 
Montreal, and his companions, clerical and lay, took 
formal possession. The most conspicuous feature in 
Montreal's early history is the constant annoyance to 
which the settlers were subjected by the Indians. In 
1689, t^o^ place the dreadful massacre at Lachine, near 
the upper end of the island, and the citizens of Montreal 
were not permanently relieved from anxiety caused by 
threatened attacks upon themselves, until the Iroquois 
were suppressed. 

The antiquarian and historian find valuable material 
in Montreal; yet its strongest claim upon our attention 
is its remarkable growth as a commercial centre. The 
figures which measure its trade cause those of pretty 
nearly all the rest of the Dominion to sink into insignifi- 
cance. I must, however, warn my readers that Mon- 
treal's trade returns may include statistics of interior 
towns; because grain, lumber, etc., destined for foreign 
ports and transshipped here, can easily appear twice. 

After the British conquest, the French population of 
Montreal, relatively to the British, was very large; yet 
to their credit let it be said that, in spite of the fact that 
it was a very disorderly period, but few French names 
appear in the magistrates' records. During 1775-6 
the city saw many changes, and doubtless some of the 
French hated to see the British flag flying where the 
French had been; but before the score of years between 



SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 267 

the British conquest and the American Revolution had 
passed, even these had come to realise how much their 
position was improved. "They had better markets, 
better crops in those days of peace, and securer privileges 
every way, and now to be subjected to the sway of the 
New England Puritan Colonists would be one of times 
as bad as ever." Although this is the opinion of a 
Canadian divine, the Rev. J. Douglas Borthwick, I 
have no disposition to contradict him. 

Halifax is the capital of the maritime Province of 
Nova Scotia. It is undoubtedly now and will continue 
to be the chief Atlantic seaport of the Dominion, because 
it is *'an all-the-year-round harbour''; for in spite of the 
high latitude it is so free from ice that ocean-going 
vessels may enter at all seasons. With HaHfax are 
associated in the history of Acadia, Louisburg, Annapolis, 
Beausejour, and other places. When Louisburg was dis- 
mantled, HaHfax arose and from its birth its lullaby has 
been martial music on land and sea, for the garrison 
has never been discontinued, even if its maintenance 
has been transferred from Imperial to Dominion charge. 

The town stands on a pear-shaped peninsula about 
five miles long and three wide. At Citadel Hill this 
promontory rises to about 250 feet above the harbour. 
It is rather a striking coincidence that Hahfax, on the 
Atlantic, and Vancouver, on the Pacific, should both 
be famous for their magnificent seaside city parks. 

Ottawa is said to be the offspring of two very bad 
parents, War and Political Faction: a suggestion of 
what this means has been given in a previous chapter. 
Yet had an aUiance, itself displeasing, not brought about 



268 THE COMING CANADA 

this birth, it is certain that physical and industrial 
conditions would have ensured the growth of a city on 
this attractive site. The town stands on a natural 
route from the middle St. Lawrence River to the upper 
Great Lakes, as is evident from the fact that Indians 
used it when only they and wild animals inhabited these 
forests. If Ottawa was for some years Uttle more than 
an enclosure for the Dominion Government buildings 
and the homes of Civil Servants, it has passed beyond 
that stage. It is a prosperous, progressive city of 
100,000 inhabitants. Its lumber trade, including that 
of the suburb, Hull, is about the only thing which gives 
it commercial or industrial importance. It is essentially 
a city of homes; but since "homes" naturally means 
children, and children require education, Ottawa offers 
such attractions and advantages as would properly be 
expected. 

The piece de resistance is of course the ParHament 
Buildings, three — the main, legislative assembly halls, 
offices, Hbraries, etc., and two flanking edifices for the 
headquarters of Dominion officials and others. These 
three stand in a beautiful park on a high bluff above the 
Ottawa River. Looking up towards the park from the 
city along Metcalfe Street is a fine sight. At the other 
end of that street, and about half a mile from ParHa- 
ment Park, is the Victoria Memorial, in another park. 
This is a Museum which promises to give citizens and 
visitors admirable opportunities to study the natural 
resources, natural history, ethnology, etc., of the entire 
Dominion. The three Parliament Buildings are inade- 
quate for all departments of government, and conse- 




Empress Hotel and Harbour, Victoria, Vancouver 

Island, B C. 




«* 
.-.*■ 



'^^^ 



:^f* 



On Skeena River, B. C. 



SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 269 

quently there are bureaus housed in public or private 
buildings all over the city. 

Rideau Hall, the official residence of the Governor- 
General, is in the outskirts. It is a large, rambling, 
but comfortable domicile and stands in well-kept grounds 
which have not been shorn entirely of natural beauty. 
The Hall overlooks the river, and the Laurentian 
Hills are seen far away in the north; the views are 
superb. 

In the early years of the nineteenth century, the Hud- 
son's Bay Company established a trading-post. Fort 
Comosun, on the site of the present city of Victoria, 
Vancouver Island, at almost the extreme western end 
of what was to be the Dominion of Canada. In 1849 
the island was formally proclaimed a British possession 
and thrown open to colonisation; James Douglas, after- 
wards Sir James, being the first governor. In 1856 he 
called together the first Provincial Parliament which 
met in a room of the fort. To-day Victoria, "The 
Queen City of British Columbia," is one of the most 
beautiful and salubrious residential towns in the Domin- 
ion. The rush of miners to the Fraser River gold fields, 
in 1858, and lately a small part of a similar skurry to 
the Klondike, have caused ripples upon the placid life 
of the little city; but usually it has preserved the 
quiet of a combination business town and military post. 
Many well-to-do families have made their homes here, 
attracted by the natural surroundings, the commercial 
and educational advantages, and the temperate climate. 
Being a port of call for steamers to and from Asia and 
Australia, there is always a sense of being in touch with 



270 THE COMING CANADA 

the world; and this is a satisfaction to those whose 
affluence relieves them from active avocation. 

Vancouver has lost the mushroom appearance it wore 
for some years after the Canadian Pacific transferred 
its western terminus to this place from Port Moody. 
It is now the principal shipping port on the Dominion's 
Pacific coast, and a substantial town of more than 100,000 
inhabitants. It is admirably equipped with the facilities 
that make life comfortable: its schools, homes, hotels, 
churches, public and commercial buildings have a look 
of permanency and prosperity that is pleasing; while 
the captious critic can find little fault with its commercial 
and industrial activity. Stanley Park, the complement 
of the one at Halifax, is at the extreme western end of 
the bold peninsula on which Vancouver stands: in it 
are some of the largest trees in British Columbia; while 
its fern-carpeted glades, traversed by excellent drive- 
ways, bridle-paths, and walks, make it a most charming 
city breathing-place. 

From Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, up 
the St. Lawrence to the lakes, and on at least as far 
as Toronto and Hamilton, there are quite two score 
places that I should like to mention in this chapter, for 
they all deserve it; but I am not writing a book about 
Canadian towns. 



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CHAPTER XXI 

A FEW CANADIANS 

TO do even scant justice to all Canadians who have 
contributed much towards the conquest of the 
Dominion, to its political creation, its development, 
and who have marked out clearly the pathway along 
which The Coming Canada shall progress to even greater 
things than those which have been, so completely exceeds 
the possible in one short chapter as to make the small 
effort upon which I venture seem ridiculous. If I shall 
be so fortunate as to secure some Canadian readers, I 
beg that they wiU not consider the omission of very 
many names which should be here, as altogether a 
sign of ignorance, but attribute it to the limitations of 
space. 

I shall say no more of the French pioneers, both lay 
and clerical, but pass on to the time when British policy 
asserted itself, and then to the time when the conduct 
of affairs was left entirely in the hands of Canadians 
themselves. Naturally, then, the men who first made 
known to their fellow countrymen something of the 
magnitude and economic possibilities of the vast estate 
which had fallen to them, claim precedence, and in Mr. 
J. Castwell Hopkins' Encyclopaedia, I find abundant 
material from which I have, in part, drawn. 

Alexander Mackenzie (the name is sometimes im- 



272 THE COMING CANADA 

properly given as McKenzie) was probably born at 
Inverness, Scotland, about 1755. He must have been 
still very young when he yielded to the temptation to 
leave home, because in 1779 he appears to have been in 
Canada, for he entered the ofl&ces of the North West 
Fur Company at Toronto in that year. In 1787 he was 
entrusted with a small stock of goods which he took to 
Detroit, and he was given permission to trade, provided 
he penetrated into the Indian territory, beyond that 
frontier, in the spring of the next year. He succeeded 
in estabhshing barter with the Indians, although they 
were disposed to resent his efforts. 

In 1789, Mackenzie was sent to explore the un- 
known region far to the North West, which was even 
at that time supposed to be bounded by the Frozen Sea. 
This expedition, which was much condemned at the 
time, was looked upon as an exploit of sheer hardihood. 
He accomplished it in less than three and a half months, 
most of the time he and his companions being in birch- 
bark canoes. He made his way to Great Slave Lake 
and thereafter discovered the river which bears his 
name. Having descended this noble stream to its 
mouth, he returned to Toronto, where, for a short period, 
he attended to post-trading. 

In 1792, he began the expedition across the prairies 
and the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, which has 
already been mentioned. From the Pacific shores, he 
once more retraced his steps and again settled down for 
a short taste of comfortable home life. The narrative 
of his explorations in the North West, which he published 
in 1 80 1 and dedicated to King George III, is most fasci- 



A FEW CANADIANS 273 

nating reading. The next year the King conferred upon 
him the honour of knighthood. 

Sir Alexander continued to be a partner in the North 
West Company; yet with somewhat curious ideas of 
commercial ethics, he organised a rival firm which was 
called Sir Alexander Mackenzie & Co. The competition 
did not last long, for in 1805 the firm was absorbed by 
the older company. Like so many successful Britons, 
Sir Alexander became possessed with a desire to sit in 
Parliament, and for some years he represented Hun- 
tingdon County, in the Provincial Parliament for Canada 
East (now Quebec). During this time he was involved 
in much Ktigation with Lord Selkirk concerning the Red 
River Settlement in what is now the Province of Mani- 
toba. In 181 2, Sir Alexander returned to Scotland, 
where he purchased an estate at Avoch in Ross-shire. 
On a journey to Edinburgh in 1820, he was suddenly 
taken ill and died at Mulnain, near Dunkeld. 

The narratives of Sir Alexander's two great expeditions 
may be read by all who care to do so. The details show 
the character of the man as an explorer, and as an adept 
in accommodating himseK to circumstances until he 
could compel those circumstances to conform to his 
wishes. They also indicate a remarkable capacity for 
dealing with all classes of men; his own determined 
fellow countrymen, Europeans of various nations, the 
fickle voyageurs and coureurs des hois, or the wily, cun- 
ning, often tricky Indian. But another phase of this 
man's character appears in the fact that he was made a 
partner in the North West Company when comparatively 
young. As Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal says: 



274 THE COMING CANADA 

*'It was not an easy matter to obtain admission into this 
partnership. It could be accomplished only by long 
and arduous service; money was no object, ability was 
everything. It was what the candidate could perform, 
not his relationship, which secured him the position." 
It is little wonder that Canada pays high honour to the 
memory of Sir Alexander Mackenzie. 

At the same time that Mackenzie was cutting that 
inscription on the rock at Dean Inlet, mentioned in a 
previous chapter, another venturesome explorer, Capt. 
George Vancouver, was making his way up the Pacific 
coast of North America, less than two hundred miles 
north of where the first Briton to cross the continent 
had reached the strand. Vancouver had already 
visited the very same spot that Mackenzie subsequently 
reached; but he seems to have left no sign, and it is a 
strange thing that these two explorers did not meet 
each other in that remote region. 

Thirteen years after Mackenzie reached the Pacific, 
Simon Fraser crossed the Rocky Mountains, south of 
Mackenzie's trail, and reached the river which was 
named after him. It is hardly correct to claim that he 
was its discoverer, but there is little doubt that he was 
the first white man to descend it. As one gazes upon 
the foaming rapids and boiling whirlpools of that wild 
river, one can readily believe that Eraser's exploit has 
not been repeated by many, even Indians. 

One Canadian, however, George Simpson, Governor 
in Chief of Rupert's Land and General Superintendent 
of the Hudson's Bay Company's offices in North America, 
who was afterwards knighted, took canoe at York 



A FEW CANADIANS 275 

Factory on Hudson Bay, in 1828. He went up Nelson 
and Churchill rivers, reached Lake Athabasca, went 
up the Peace River as far as possible, then carried his 
light craft to the great northern bend of the Fraser, 
down which he made his way safely to the Pacific. 
Simpson made another famous journey in 1841. He 
went up the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, across 
Lakes Nipissing, Huron, and Superior to the portage 
between the affluents of the last and those of Lake 
Winnipeg. Then he went up the Saskatchewan to its 
headwaters, crossed over the Rockies, and descended 
the Kootenay to the Columbia River. Of Simpson 
"It is stated that he was the first Hudson's Bay Governor 
who fulfilled, on behalf of the Company, the duty 
imposed upon them by its charter — the task of explora- 
tion and geographical discovery." 

Turning from the brave explorers whose labours laid 
the foundations of the Dominion, that is almost an 
empire in itself, I mention the name of one who added 
to that foundation a stone of great importance. I do 
not know that I can correctly call the Hon. Sir Francis 
Hincks the father of the Canadian banking system, but 
he was assuredly an important factor of it. Nor would 
it be truthful to say that the very foundations of that 
system have never been severely shaken; for they have, 
and sometimes the shock has been one from which the re- 
covery was slow and discouraging. When such financial 
disasters have come, they were always traceable to 
causes which showed that Sir Francis' principles had 
been departed from. 

Canada presents to the observing American a combi- 



276 THE COMING CANADA 

nation in one and the same man of politics and literature, 
or finance, or commerce, or industry — or sometimes of 
three or more of these together, which seems to be 
undesirable south of the border. Sir Francis Hincks, 
when a young man, was supercargo of a vessel to Bar- 
badoes; then he went to Canada, "where he soon won 
a high reputation in business circles, and a permanent 
place in political councils." He was a member of the 
Provincial Parliament, Canada West; afterwards Minis- 
ter of Finance; and later Prime Minister. From Canada 
he returned to Barbadoes as Governor, and was subse- 
quently Governor of British Guiana. Before this he 
had been intimately associated with Lord Elgin in 
negotiating, at Washington, the famous Reciprocity 
Treaty of 1854. In 1873, ^e retired from public life 
after having had much to do with the moulding of 
Canada's banking system. 

So many prominent men have been associated with 
the railways of Canada, that it is awkward to pick out 
just a few for mention here. Perhaps it would be more 
accurate to say that many Canadians have risen to 
prominence because of their successful administration of 
these great enterprises. Henry Fairbairn is a name that 
is, I am sure, not known to all Canadians, and south 
of the border it is practically unknown. Yet it was he 
who, in 1832, made the statement: "I propose: first, 
to form a Railway for wagons from Quebec to the 
harbour of St. Andrews upon the Bay of Fundy, a work 
which will convey the whole trade of the St. Lawrence 
in a single day to the Atlantic waters." He purposed, 
further, extending the line eastward to connect with the 



A FEW CANADIANS 277 

railways of the United States. Bearing in mind that the 
first railway of the world, the Stockton and Darlington, 
England, was opened February 27, 1825, it will be 
seen that some Canadians were prompt to realise the 
benefits of this new method of transportation. When 
Fairbairn's suggestion was at length acted upon, it 
gave rise to what is now known as the Intercolonial 
Railway. With the name of Fairbairn should be coupled 
that of the Hon. Edward Barron Chandler. 

Sir Francis Hincks, who has just been mentioned, 
had almost as much to do with the railway development 
of Canada as he had with its banking and financial 
system, and especially with the early history of the 
Grand Trunk Railway. The Hon. John Ross, a Cana- 
dian Senator, who was actively engaged in the organisa- 
tion of that company and with the construction of the 
Victoria Bridge, at Montreal, was an Irishman by birth. 
He did not live to old age, but he did much for Canada, 
and an appropriate monument to his memory stands 
in St. James' Cemetery, Toronto. As part of the early 
history of the Grand Trunk Railway, must be mentioned 
the names of Walter Stanley, constructing engineer, 
and Sir Joseph Hickson, President; and there are 
others, too numerous to be mentioned. 

Long before the project of laying a trans-continental 
railway had taken form, in the building of the Canadian 
Pacific, the desirability of such a line had been advocated. 
In 1829, Mr. McTaggart, a civil engineer, had proposed 
such a highway. In 1848, Major Carmichael-Smyth 
had recommended the construction by convict labour 
of a railway to the Pacific by way of the Kicking Horse 



278 THE COMING CANADA 

Pass. While these names should be remembered, they 
are not those of whom the Canadians speak as their 
great men. In 1872, when Parliamentary action was 
taken, the names of D. L. Macpherson, afterwards 
knighted, and Sir Hugh Allan come to mind, with those 
of the men who were mentioned when writing of the 
Canadian Pacific Railway, in a previous chapter: all of 
these are justly considered great in their way. Later, 
when the construction along the north shore of Lake 
Superior and the piercing of the Selkirk Mountains were 
causing bitter discouragement, there were two men who 
came forward and turned threatened defeat into glorious 
victory. Mr. W. C. Van Home, afterwards Sir William, 
and Major A. B. Rogers, whose name has been very 
properly given to the pass through the Selkirks which 
he found, appeared and made themselves masters of the 
situation. In a way, the surveyors and constructors 
of the railways which are penetrating the remote sections 
of the Dominion, and crossing the continent by other 
routes than the pioneer, are doing great work; but the 
glory of initiative is not theirs. 

If the demands of modern life give precedence to rail- 
ways, because of the rapidity with which they carry 
passengers and freight, it would be unfair to pass by the 
names of some men who have increased the capacity 
of the grand natural means of internal communication 
which Canadian waterways furnish. To give credit 
to all would logically require that the first who marked 
out the useful portages, linking up the open streams or 
lakes, be mentioned; but that is manifestly impossible 
— partly because the names of many of those pioneers 



A FEW CANADIANS 279 

are not known; principally because there were too many 
of them. The Hon. William Hamilton Merritt, after 
sundry failures due to lack of technical skill in making 
preliminary surveys, secured a charter for what is now 
the Welland Canal, connecting lakes Erie and Ontario 
and permitting vessels to pass round the impassable 
Niagara Falls. From this beginning has grown the 
system of canals which now permit ocean-going steamers 
to load at Fort William, Port Arthur, and all the Ameri- 
can lake ports; go down to the deep sea, pass onward, 
and discharge cargo at any port in the world. 

How few people know that Samuel Cunard, erelong 
Sir Samuel, Baronet, the founder of the great Cunard 
Steamship Company, was a Canadian! Yet he was 
born at Halifax, November 21, 1787; and what is more 
interesting to Americans, he was the son of a Phila- 
delphia merchant whose business connection took him 
to the Nova Scotia town where he decided to remain. 
When Samuel Cunard was fifty-one years of age, that 
is in 1838, he interested British capitalists and succeeded 
in having built four steamers of 1200 tons burden and 
of 440 horsepower each. The first of these, the Britannia, 
made the voyage from Liverpool, whence she sailed on 
July 4, 1840, to Boston, at which port she arrived 
on the 1 8th. But this was not the first steamship to 
conquer the oceans; and the honour of having accom- 
plished this marvel also belongs to Canadians. In 
1833, a vessel was built at Quebec and christened the 
Royal William. William IV was then on the English 
throne. The Royal William made the first complete 
passage between the American and European coasts 



28o THE COMING CANADA 

of the Atlantic, under her own steam solely. In the list 
of this steamer's owners appeared the names of Joseph, 
Henry, and Samuel Cunard. She was designed by James 
Goudie, who superintended her building, equipping and 
launching, in the yards of Campbell and Black, Quebec. 
Surely the pioneer of the builders and owners of the 
Lusitania and Mauretania, who organised the com- 
pany which was the prototype of the hundreds whose 
steamers now cross the seas, may be given a place in 
the list of a few Canadians. 

I know that not one of the great Canadian states- 
men is mentioned here. It is not necessary for me to 
do so, because all know and honour them. My purpose 
is to direct attention to a few who have done good work 
for the Dominion in quiet ways that do not win the 
vociferous applause of the world. I do not mean to 
insist that those whom I have named, and the thou- 
sands others Hke them, were absolutely altruistic; but 
this I think: they were, or are, typical of that spirit 
which has been conspicuous in a majority of Canada's 
prominent men ever since 1763. It has led men to work 
for the whole country, and if it is fostered it will make 
the Coming Canada all that loyal Canadians wish. 



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CHAPTER XXII 
RECIPROCITY 

AFTER having had abundant opportunity to learn 
the feelings of Canadians who are competent to 
express an opinion upon this important subject, I feel 
that I may safely say that a majority of the Dominion's 
citizens would be glad to have a certain form of reci- 
procity; one which would enure to their benefit, and at 
the same time would, in their opinion, confer a com- 
mensurate advantage upon citizens of the United States. 
I may seem to wish to wound the vanity of my fellow 
countrymen (although I deny any such intent) when 
I say that they must not assume it is we only who would 
be doing a favour in re-enacting a Reciprocity provision 
which Canada would ratify; because American econo- 
mists would not have advocated the measure of two 
years ago, had they been altogether unselfish. Philan- 
thropic sentiment has very little to do with such matters. 
In the last chapter I expressed the opinion that most 
Canadians are disposed to work for the good of their 
whole country, and I think their action in rejecting the 
Reciprocity Treaty does not at all contradict my opinion. 
I am aware that there were some who took a perverted 
view of their responsibilities when they insisted upon 
distorting certain rather ill-considered (yet not inten- 
tionally offensive) expressions by a few prominent 



282 THE COMING CANADA 

Americans, as indicating a desire on the part of the 
United States to unite the Dominion to their own 
country, and thus have one great Anglo-Saxon govern- 
ment from the Mexican frontier away to the North 
Pole. 

So far as the Reciprocity Treaty of 191 1 was concerned, 
there were not many Canadians who were not pleased 
with the prospect of securing the commercial benefits 
which it promised; it was the bad politics, infused into 
the proposition by sensation-mongers south of the 
boundary and timid alarmists to the north, which 
brought about its rejection and the downfall of the 
Laurier Government. After a reasonable time has been 
permitted to elapse so that the influence of those bad 
politics may pass away, there is no reason to believe 
that a Reciprocity Treaty or Agreement, drawn up on 
very much the same lines as those of the rejected one, 
will not prove acceptable to the Canadians and bene- 
ficial to all parties concerned. Canadian manufacturers 
are pushing ahead most actively; yet there is not 
apparent any marked tendency to the form of concentra- 
tion or monopoly which our leading publicists (that is 
the few who are really disinterested) deplore as threaten- 
ing the democratic principles upon which our social, 
economic, and political systems are supposed to be 
based. . ^ •» 

An indication of this seeming opposition to doubtful, 
not to say dangerous, concentration may be seen in 
the fact that the Canadian Government and people are 
firm in their opposition to allowing any single railway 
system to exercise monopolistic or exclusive rights in 



RECIPROCITY 283 

a particular territory. If a railway map of the Domin- 
ion is carefully studied, it will be seen that every one of 
the three great private systems, the Grand Trunk, the 
Canadian Pacific, and the Canadian Northern, is per- 
mitted, and even encouraged by local or State aid, to 
construct lines into regions which, but for this apparent 
desire to discourage monopoly, might easily be con- 
tended are in the nature of ''preserved domain." 

I do not hesitate to say, and my conclusion is based 
upon very close study of conditions in all parts of the 
Dominion, that the Central Government and the people 
themselves would not tolerate such apparent assump- 
tions of exclusive rights as have been conspicuous in 
various parts of the United States. To be specific, I 
mention the successful efforts in the west to prevent 
construction of parallel lines so close to established ones 
as to furnish absolute competition; equally successful 
efforts in the eastern states, Pennsylvania for example, 
to exclude competitors from profitable territory; and 
other similar cases might be cited, although I have no 
doubt every reader will think of many. 

It is impossible for any political economist to conceive 
of conditions in Canada parallelling the brazen monopoly 
of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford system in 
its appropriated territory, southern New England; or 
the treatment of the city of Philadelphia by the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad. Our apparent inability to release 
ourselves from the clutches of the giant railway corpora- 
tions is amazing to the Canadians, and their open derision 
of the inefficient Interstate Commerce Commission is 
humiliating. They say of this bureau that it is mani- 



284 THE COMING CANADA 

festly intended to give sinecures to political friends of 
the administration, and to promote litigation so that 
attorneys may have employment; that it accomplishes 
aught for the real benefit of the public, they vehemently 
deny. 

Unless a remarkable change takes place in the views 
of economists and the methods of doing business in 
Canada, it is hardly conceivable that such monopolies 
as the Standard Oil Company, the Steel Trust, the 
Harvester Trust, and — to use a vague and rather 
inaccurate term to denote a very tangible fact — the 
Money Trust, could be organised in Canada. If Reci- 
procity is again contemplated in which the initiative 
must be taken by the United States, and the effort 
should bring promise of greater success than marked the 
last one, all these conditions will be thoughtfully con- 
sidered by the Canadians, and every possible precaution 
will be taken to make it impossible for these objection- 
able combinations, in restraint of legitimate trade and 
healthy competition, to find a loophole in convention 
or treaty through which they may carry their operations 
into the Dominion. 

It is not, however, as producers of manufactured 
goods that Canadians could be specially interested in 
the re-enactment of a Reciprocity treaty: for in the 
very nature of things it must be a long time before such 
industries shall have developed sufl&ciently to make it 
possible for Canadian goods to be sent profitably into 
the United States, even if the present prohibitive Ameri- 
can tariff were removed entirely or reduced materially. 
It is from the United States into Canada that such things 



RECIPROCITY 285 

must pass, certainly until the number of workmen to 
be herded in factories and trained to turn out great 
quantities of all those articles for which the material 
is to be had in abundance in the Dominion, has been 
increased far beyond anything which the immediate 
future promises. Furniture and woodenware of all 
kinds are present exceptions to this statement. 

Reciprocity means to the Canadian, the privilege of 
sending raw materials into the United States, either 
free of duty or at such a reasonable tariff as shall ensure 
profit to the shipper; and the possibly greater privileges 
of bringing the many manufactured articles from the 
States which cannot yet be produced so cheaply in the 
Dominion. Every American who has travelled in 
Canada, or Mexico, or any other foreign country, knows 
very well that there is hardly an American manufactured 
article, from a steel pen or a watch to a combination 
reaper and binder, which cannot be bought cheaper '% S3 
abroad than at home, because those articles must meet ^^T 
the competition of similar articles made in other Vr 

countries. 

The travesty of ^'the export price" of our manufac-->,,^N 
tures, often less than one-half the home price, indicates 
clearly that profits are illegitimate, or economic condi- 
tions altogether distorted. I myself am wearing Ameri- 
can underclothing which I bought in a foreign country 
for about one-half the price that is demanded for it in 
our retail stores. Such unfair profit will not be permitted 
in Canada, and Reciprocity will not be considered if 
conditions are to be such as to make it possible. If the 
Canadians should detect in any proposed movement 




> 






286 THE COMING CANADA 

towards Reciprocity a possibility that such a concern 
as the Harvester Trust might gain a footing, and be 
enabled to dictate to the husbandmen of the growing 
North West as it does to the American farmers, the 
opposition to such a proposition would be far wider and 
fiercer than was that displayed two years ago, and it 
would not be necessary for political demagogues to assert 
that there is a purpose hidden in the terms of the con- 
vention or treaty which assaults the integrity of the 
Dominion. 

Reciprocity between the United States and Canada 
would be of great benefit to both countries, if wisely 
conceived and fairly worked out. The terms proposed 
two years ago were generally satisfactory, although 
experience will have taught how even that treaty can 
be expanded and improved; and I fail to see any menace 
to the agricultural, industrial, or commercial inter- 
ests of the people on either side of the International 
Boundary. Consequently, I am strongly in favour of 
securing for ourselves whatever benefit such legislation 
or diplomatic negotiation would bring; and of giving 
to our northern neighbours whatever advantages can be 
conferred by our longer established and more perfected 
industries. It is, however, rather as an economic 
proposition than as a political move that it should be 
considered. 

As for the annexation of the Dominion of Canada by 
the United States of America, I cannot conceive of it 
as possible, nor do I believe it is desirable in any way. 
In 1783 the barrier was raised between the two countries 
which I feel sure can never be thrown down. Even 



RECIPROCITY 287 

before the close of the War of American Independence, 
British statesmen had come to see the folly of that 
course which they had pursued towards those thirteen 
American colonies until their stupid arrogance had 
driven them into revolt; and they had already changed 
in their attitude towards "The Fourteenth Colony,'* 
as Canada was then sometimes called. 

The opposition of the French-English colonists in 
Canada to the overtures made by the representatives 
of the southern colonies; the vigorous and successful 
effort to resist armed invasion from the American side 
of the line and conquest by the belligerent colonists, 
taught the Court at London that it was well worth 
while to see to it that no conditions should arise which 
might provoke the Canadians to assert their indepen- 
dence as the lost colonies had done. 

Canada remained British, the thirteen separated 
colonies promptly developed new characteristics, be- 
coming American. If in 1783, there was little if any- 
thing in speech, habit of thought, social and communal 
customs, and all else save political opinions, to distin- 
guish the citizen in the United States from the subject 
in Canada, that similarity was of but short duration. 
With every year the lines of divergence separated more 
and more until they may be said to have turned in 
absolutely opposite directions — the Americans go their 
way, the Canadians go theirs, and it is well for the 
world. North America especially, that it should be so. 

With the development of faciHties for intercommuni- 
cation and the ease with which the people of either 
country pass over into the other, has come a semblance 



288 THE COMING CANADA 

of once more drawing together. This appearance is 
merely social and commercial; there is nothing political 
about it. One of the conspicuous features of this 
seeming drawing together is to be noted in speech: the 
people of either country pass over the border, unmarked 
by armed sentries — as one often sees at European 
frontiers — without detecting any great difference in 
intonation or locution. If the American rarely evinces 
any conspicuous tendency to be British in these traits, 
it is very certain that the Canadian often seems to 
speak ^'United States" with precisely the same intona- 
tion and forms as are used to the south of the border. 

In commercial matters the Briton in Canada long ago 
gave up the cumbersome sterling currency and now 
thinks and speaks in dollars and cents, as regularly 
converting pounds, shilKngs, and pence into the decimal 
notation, in order to comprehend values, as does his 
Yankee neighbour. In many other matters there is 
little, often nothing at all, to differentiate the two 
peoples; but the moment the realm of government and 
political institutions is entered, it at once becomes ' 
apparent that the two are farther apart than ever, and 
that there is no likelihood of there being a revival of 
the spirit which, perhaps, in 1849 murmured for annexa- 
tion to the United States. 

If there were no unyielding limit to the space which I 
may give to this interesting subject, it would be prof- 
itable to consider the seeming resemblances and the 
apparent commimity of interests which deceive some 
people in the United States (I doubt if there are really 
any in Canada) into believing that the Canadians are 



RECIPROCITY 289 

disposed towards casting in their lot with the citizens 
of the great and successful Republic on their southern 
border. As a matter of fact nearly all of those appear- 
ances are utterly fallacious: they are extraneous, not 
fundamental. 

In the matter of government, it would be well-nigh 
impossible to convince a Canadian that he enjoys less 
freedom than his American neighbour, because it would 
be positively incorrect to make the assertion; the mere 
fact that there is, in the ''British North American Act" 
of 1867, of the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain, 
which created the Dominion, a proviso that it shall be 
administered in such a way as not to confhct with Eng- 
lish law, amounts to nothing as limiting the power of 
self-government in Canada. In the security which 
Dominion and local government affords to life and 
property, the Canadian will not be far wrong when he 
contends that he is the better off of the two. If the 
government of borough, municipality, township, county, 
territory, and province in Canada is not as truly repre- 
sentative — of the people, by the people, and for the 
people — as is that of any commonwealth or minor 
poHtical subdivision in the United States of America, 
I do not know what ''representative government" 
means. If Canada is wiser than the United States in 
slightly Hmiting the suffrage, by property quaHfication 
in some places, by a literacy test generally, and in mak- 
ing it impossible for a batch of alien immigrants to be 
marched to the polls within a month after their arrival 
and for them to cast their ballots, this in no way im- 
pugns her representative government; rather does it 



290 THE COMING CANADA 

make the government more lawfully representative: 
it is an example that the elder republic would do well 
to follow. 

In the matter of the administration of justice and 
court procedure, I am compelled to admit that the 
Canadian is better off than I am; and I blush with 
mortification as I pen the confession. As to promptness, 
I recall a phrase in a magazine story I have just read 
which exactly describes it: ''They'd give you twenty 
years for that job, and they'd do it in twenty minutes. 
You buck against British justice up here!" An eminent 
American jurist and statesman, Hon. Albert J. Beveridge, 
in a series of articles which has already been mentioned, 
has shown conclusively that in promptness of action 
and in ability to enforce judgment, the Canadian courts 
are far ahead of ours. These conditions give a sense of 
security alike against highwaymen and grinding monopo- 
lies, for Canadian judges are quick in harnessing trusts. 

In the administration of public utilities, there seems 
to be a similarity in methods on both sides of the border; 
yet a superficial investigation of these services, let us 
take a railway for example, shows that in Canada these 
public servants do not dare to act in the autocratic 
manner which is characteristic of all of them in the 
United States. With pleasing resemblances in peoples 
and customs in many ways, there is then a fundamental 
difference between Canada and the United States which 
will make annexation not only impossible but in nearly 
every way undesirable so long as the British Empire 
remains intact. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

CANADA AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE 

I COMMENCE this chapter with an extract from the 
Introduction to a very valuable and scholarly work * 
"In 1840, when responsible government may be said to 
commence, there were prevailing two main principles 
of law with regard to the position of the British Colonies. 
In the first place, it was held by the Crown lawyers that 
it was not possible to deprive an Englishman of the 
inestimable advantages of English law, and that there- 
fore, if he settled in parts abroad which were not under 
a legitimate foreign sovereignty, he carried with him 
so much at least of the English law as was appropriate 
to the circumstances in which he found himself. But 
obviously, the mere carrying with him of the provisions 
of such law would not have been adequate to meet the 
circumstances of a new Colony. It was impossible to 
expect the Parliament of England to legislate effectively 
for distant territories concerning which it had, and 
could have no information, and it was therefore necessary 
that there should be passed by some competent authority 
legislation adapted to the needs of the new Colony." 

It is manifest at a glance that the writer of these 
remarks had specifically in mind the Canadian colonies; 

* Arthur Berriedale Keith, Responsible Government in the Dominions, 
3 vols. 19 1 2. 



292 THE COMING CANADA 

and also that the British sovereign, parliament, and 
statesmen were giving to those colonies a large measure 
of careful consideration, because it needs no statement 
by me to show that at that time, the British colonies 
in other parts of the world had not attained the impor- 
tance of Canada. Most of the others were ''Crown 
Colonies"; administered by Governors appointed directly 
by the sovereign and responsible to him and his Privy 
Council. These conditions indicate clearly the impor- 
tance, as a unit of the British Empire, which Canada 
held in the opinion of the Home Government, seventy 
and more years ago. 

In that same year, 1840, was passed by the British 
Parliament the " Union Act" which united — only tem- 
porarily, however — the two provinces of Upper Canada 
(a part of what is now Ontario) and Lower Canada (the 
southern portion of the present Quebec), under a repre- 
sentative legislature. The political aspect of this Act 
and its unsatisfactoriness have been considered in a 
previous chapter. 

But simultaneously a new start was given in constitu- 
tional history by the enunciation and adoption of the 
principle of responsible government. From that begin- 
ning, as has been shown, the same principle was extended 
to each of the provinces which were original, ''charter," 
if I may use the expression, members of the Dominion, 
as well as to those which have since been admitted; and 
undoubtedly it will be applied to the territories when 
population and development justify their promotion. 
By responsible government in this sense is to be under- 
stood: first, that the head of the executive government 



CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 293 

of a province, being, within the limits of his jurisdic- 
tion, the representative of the sovereign, is, through his 
intermediary the Governor-General, responsible to the 
Imperial authority alone. But this Lieutenant-Governor 
cannot satisfactorily conduct the affairs of his prov- 
ince without the assistance, counsel, and information 
of subordinate officials chosen from the resident popu- 
lation. Second, that these chief advisers of the Imperial 
representative ought to have the confidence of the 
people's representatives in the local legislative assembly. 
Third, that the people of the province have the right 
to expect from such provincial administration the 
exertion of their best efforts that the Imperial authority 
within its constitutional limits should be exercised in 
the manner most consistent with their well-understood 
wishes and interests. 

It thus becomes evident that the Dominion of Canada 
is looked upon by the Imperial government as an im- 
portant factor in the British Empire. Nothing has been 
done for more than half a century which might tend to 
the arousing in Canada of the same feeHngs which 
incited the people of the thirteen southern colonies to 
assert themselves so vehemently that opposition finally 
led to revolt, revolt to war, war to independence, 
whereby England lost her most valuable over-seas 
possessions. It is not at all inappropriate to repeat here 
that had the King of England, in 1773 to 1775, and 
his immediate advisers been inspired with the same 
feelings towards "parts abroad which were not under 
a legitimate sovereignty," and over which England 
claimed dominion, as those which have influenced the 



294 THE COMING CANADA 

British Government since 1783, or certainly since 1840, 
it is hardly too much to say that there would probably 
never have been a Revolutionary War at all. That 
those thirteen colonies would have demanded indepen- 
dence eventually, was possibly inevitable, our fuller 
knowledge of social, political, and religious conditions 
in the eighteenth century seem to justify that assump- 
tion; but it would have come and probably been 
granted without such serious rupture as is connoted by 
a long war. 

If the whole is equal to the sum of its parts; and if 
those parts interact, the one upon the others; then if 
by reason of her units in various sections of the world 
Great Britain is a World Power, so Canada, too, is a 
world power both directly and indirectly, and each year 
seems to bring out more clearly the willingness of the 
Canadians to accept the responsibility which the position 
carries with it. To take for a pleasing illustration of 
the sentimental bond by which the British Empire is 
now tied together and the close intimacy which exists 
between the English mother and the Canadian offspring, 
I may refer to the fact that on October 21, 1909, the 
Royal Edward Tuberculosis Institute at Montreal was 
opened by King Edward in person, by means of special 
electric connection between the Library at West Dean 
Park, Colchester, England, and the Institute, thousands 
of miles away at Montreal. By this wire a cablegram 
was sent direct from King Edward, in which he de- 
clared "the Royal Edward Institute at Montreal is now 
open." It may seem to be a small matter to mention 
here, yet I think it is filled with suggestiveness. 



CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 295 

The keen and intelligent interest which the Canadians 
took in the British general election of 1909 spoke for 
the fact that the Dominion considers itself a part of the 
Empire; while the respect shown by British statesmen 
for Canada's opinion at that time was an admission that 
the Dominion's assumption of sympathy and responsi- 
bility is based upon a sound foundation. Certainly one 
part of the definition which Mr. Asquith gave of Liberal- 
ism, in a speech made before the ''Eighty Club," London, 
on July 22, 1909, met with cordial approval throughout 
Canada. He said: "As regards the Empire, to secure 
real unity by allowing the freest diversity and the 
fullest liberty to self-development in all its parts." 

That the Dominion of Canada holds a great position 
and that it fills a wide arc in the Imperial horizon, was 
demonstrated by the official and social events con- 
nected with the coronation of King George V. More 
than one hundred Canadians, ofiicials and the wives of 
those who were accompanied by their spouses, were 
invited to Westminster Abbey. Sir WiKred Laurier, 
at that time Prime Minister, but very soon to be deposed 
by Mr. Borden, was the only Canadian who was honoured 
by being entertained as a Royal Guest. In this, however, 
there was nothing invidious, for it was impossible to 
extend the courtesy beyond Sir Wilfred without making 
the list of those who were recognised as deserving it 
altogether too large. 

The importance which the Imperial Government 
ascribes to the Dominion is indicated still further by 
the gradual advance in rank and dignity of the person 
appointed to represent the Home Government as inter- 



296 THE COMING CANADA 

mediary between it and the local administration. It 
has now reached as high socially and officially as seems 
to be possible. The present Governor- General is a 
member of the Royal Family of Great Britain, the uncle 
of the reigning monarch, the personage who, had the 
late King, Edward VII, left no children, would now be 
himself upon the throne. We cannot therefore wonder 
very much that there are those, both in Canada and in 
England, who have advocated making the Governor- 
Generalship a permanent, life appointment, the post 
to be filled by a member of the Royal family, probably 
one who is not directly in the line of succession. From 
what I have seen and heard, I think this would be a 
mistake. The Duke of Connaught is immensely popu- 
lar, I know, and remarkably affable, yet somehow I 
doubt if the atmosphere surrounding him is just the 
right one for the Canadians to breathe all the time. Yet 
with this sentiment existing, be it powerful or weak, 
developing or decreasing, there cannot be, I am sure, 
any sincere desire on the part of even official Canada, 
and certainly not generally, to have established in 
Canada, at the Governor- General's residence, something 
like unto — or imitative of — a Royal Court. It would 
be difficult to persuade the present Governor- General, 
Field Marshal, His Royal Highness, the Duke of Con- 
naught and Strathearn, to lend himself to such a scheme. 
He is a son of Queen Victoria, who was the very per- 
sonification of conservatism in matters pertaining to 
Court form, ceremony, and punctilio. But the Duke's 
own tastes (and they seem to betray a trace of paternal 
heredity), encouraged by his own experiences, convince 



CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 297 

many observers that he will be a democratic Governor. 
A year's experience appears to have strengthened this 
opinion, and there is throughout Canada a conviction 
that the Duke's sojourn has tightened the bond which 
unites the Dominion to the Empire. Everywhere, one 
hears regrets that the Duchess' health demands that 
she return to England for a time next year, and the 
earnest hope that she may speedily come back for a long 
stay in Canada. 

Almost the first official utterance of the Duke, as 
Governor- General, shows a combination of that demo- 
cratic idea with an appreciation of the growing impor- 
tance of the country which he had been appointed to 
govern. At the luncheon given His Royal Highness 
immediately upon landing at Quebec, October 13, 191 1, 
and taking the oath of office, he said, in response to the 
official welcome voiced by the Right Hon. Robert Laird 
Borden, Prime Minister and President of the King's 
Privy Council for Canada: *'I have been specially asked 
by the King, my nephew, to express to the Canadian 
people a personal message of affection and ever abiding 
interest in all that concerns the welfare of this great 
Dominion. I am not certain of the number of times the 
King has visited Canada, but certainly on many occa- 
sions, and the last on the great historic occasion ^when 
you celebrated the Quebec Tercentary. Each time 
His Majesty's interest has grown, and I need scarcely 
assure you he now takes the same profound interest, 
but in degree ever increasing, and the most fervent wish 
to-day of King George is that the prosperity of Canada 
may continue and flourish more and more." 



298 THE COMING CANADA 

The Dominion of Canada is fully alive to its imperial 
responsibilities. For a time, some other units of the 
British Empire, the one which for so long was heralded 
as the only one upon which the sun never sets, were 
somewhat disposed to claim much for themselves be- 
cause they had contributed directly to the defence of 
the Empire by giving men-of-war. To this Canada 
retorted that in providing means for crossing the conti- 
nent rapidly on British territory, from Atlantic to 
Pacific, she had not thought alone of her own material 
development and commercial advantage, but had 
thereby contributed a vital link in the All Red Route 
which now encircles the Globe. Do all my readers 
realise that a British subject can take a steamer at any 
one of several ports in the British Isles, go to Canada, 
cross the continent on British soil; take a steamer at 
Vancouver or Victoria, and by way of Fanning Island 
go to Australia; thence to Cape Town, South Africa; 
up the west coast of Africa, touching at Wolfish Bay, 
and perhaps other British colonies and Atlantic islands; 
thus back to the port of departure, without having 
entered a single port or set foot on land over which King 
George does not reign? I think I am correct in saying 
that it would be difficult, if not impossible for any other 
national to do this; the necessity for a steamer coaling 
being considered. 

The Dominion of Canada justly takes pride in the 
reflection that it is her transcontinental railway which 
has contributed much to this possibility that is pleasing 
to the patriotism of a loyal British subject. But Canada 
recognises that her indebtedness to the Empire demands 



CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 299 

that she shall bear a greater share of the burden than 
the building and maintenance of one or three or half- 
a-dozen transcontinental railways. She has recognised 
her obligation by launching vessels of war, and by 
agreeing to build, equip, and maintain several Dread- 
naughts that are to be units of the Imperial Navy. 

Not for years has there been in Canada any serious 
talk of independence, although in the year 1849 some 
discontented and disappointed people were disposed 
to discuss the advisabihty of asking to be annexed to 
the United States. I do not find, however, that even 
then there were many who were willing to bear Canada's 
share of the expense, in men and means, of the war with 
England that would probably have been the outcome of 
such a move. That evanescent murmur was due to 
depressed agricultural, commercial, and industrial con- 
ditions, and the added fact that the British Government, 
by giving up a slight tendency towards preferential 
tariffs in favour of the colonies, had seemed to desert 
the young, weak, and struggling members of the family, 
Canada being one of these. 

Before long, however, British statesmen perceived 
their mistake, and while they did not recede altogether 
from their position apropos free trade versus protection 
or preferential tariffs, they did set themselves to the 
task of showing Canada, and not Canada only but, 
other things being equal, all the colonies, that they were 
considered members of what ought to be a happy family. 

It should be noted that it had been prophesied by 
many that the result of the British conquest of Canada 
would be independence for the British North American 



300 THE COMING CANADA 

colonies. This prophesy was made to include even 
Canada itself, and it has to be admitted that "the 
Fourteenth Colony" was not saved to the British crown 
without much trouble and expense. The lesson learnt 
by the British Government was a profitable one, and 
care was taken that Canada should not have the same 
provocation to seek independence that the thirteen 
colonies had. 

I see no sign of Canada's wishing to be independent. 
Those who really are at the head of local affairs seem 
to me to echo, practically unanimously, the sentiment 
of Sir John Macdonald: ''A British subject I was born; 
a British subject I will die!" When the question of 
annexation to the United States is broached, many 
Canadians now laughingly retort: ''When you Ameri- 
cans really wish to come back to your mother, we are 
ready to join your country to our own!" What a con- 
trast is presented by conditions on our southern and 
northern borders! Of the former who shall dare to say 
what the outcome will be? Of the latter no one need 
hesitate to prophesy a great future for The Coming 
Canada. 



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Coleman, A. P. The Canadian Rockies. 191 2. 

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Cran, Mrs. George. Woman in Canada. 1910. 

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Dawson, Samuel Edward. The Voyages of the Cabots. 1896. 

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INDEX 



Abraham, Plains of, 8i 
Acadia, civil war in, 70 
Adam of Bremen, 5 
Agricultural resources and develop- 
ment, no, 116 
Alberta Province, 175 
Alexander, Sir Wm., Earl of Sel- 
kirk, 66 
Andros, Maj. Sir Edmund, 71 
Annexation to U. S. A., 286 
Antilia (Atlantis), Island of, 9 
Argall's attack on Mt. Desert and 

Acadia, 65 
Army and Militia, 106 
Assistance to railways, 189 
Atlantic Islands, myths and 
legends, 9 

Bancroft, H. H., 225 

BanflF, 208 

Barley, 237 

Bay of Chaleurs, Cartier at, 38 

Beauharnais, Gov., expedition to 

Pacific, 45 
Biggar, H. P., 7 
Blending of St. Lawrence and 

Hudson Bay basins, 201 
Boundary disputes with U. S., 155 
Braddock's defeat, 78 
Brazil, Island of, 9 
Bredin, W. F., 232 
Briand, R. C. bishop, his caution, 

91 



Britannia, S. S., 279 
British Columbia, 144, 224 
British Government's attention to 

Canada, 88 
British treatment of Indians, 40 
Bull, a Papal, defined, 3 
Bytown, afterwards Ottawa, 94 

Cabot, Giovanni, John, 6, 9, 10, 12 

Cabot, Sebastian, discoverer of 
"North Sea," Hudson Bay, 47 

Cameron, Mrs. Agnes Deans, 229 

Canada and Louisiana, communi- 
cation, 44 

Canada in 1763, 85 

Canada's one-thousand-mile- 
wheat-field, 229 

Canada's relation to British Em- 
pire, 291 

Canadian geography, former, 205, 

215 
Canadian Northern Railway, 187 
Canadian Pacific Railway, 181 
Canadian towns, their develop- 
ment, 23s 
Carleton, Gov. Guy, 153 
Carmichael-Smyth, Maj., 277 
Cartier, Jacques, 15, 17, ^7 
Chalmers, historian, 43 
Chartres, Fort de, 44 
Chateau le grand, legend, 22 
Christianity in Iceland, 3 
Cities in winter, 251 



3o6 



INDEX 



Civil war in U. S., 162 

Coast scenery, 134 

Columbus, C, 2, 6, 11 

Commercial methods, 288 

Communication, Canada and Lou- 
isiana, 44 

Conditions in Canada, common 
carriers, 283 

Cordilleran Belt, wealth, 113 

Corte Reale, Caspar, 14 

Cougar Caves, 148 

Coureurs des bois, 217 

Courts of law, 102 

Culdees, Irish, 3 

Cunard, Sir Samuel, 279 

Curling, 256 

De Callieres, 73 

De la Roche, P., 30 

Demarcation, Can. and U. S., 154 

De Monts, P., 18 

Denonville, Gov., 55 

Dickinson, John, address to Cana- 
dians, 150 

Discoverie, mutiny on, 48 

Dominion, creation of, 92; defined, 
i; responsibilities, 298 

Doughty, Dr. A. G., 262 

Douglas, Sir James, 221 

Douglas, Thos., Earl of Selkirk, 
62, 221 

Duke of Connaught, Gov. Gen., 
296 

Elgin, Lord, Gov. Gen., 95 
Ellice, The Rt. Hon. Edward, 221 
England's claims in N. A., 64 
English discoveries, 14 
Eric the Red, Norse discoverer, 4; 
saga of, 5 



Eskimos, blonde, 8 

European ideas of exploration, 

loth and 15th centuries, 7 
Expeditions to Hudson Bay, 57 

Fagundes, J. A., 14 
Fairbanks, Henry, 276 
Fair profits, 285 
Fenian raids, 162 
Fernandez, J., Llavrador, 13 
Fisheries, 125 
Flatey Book, The, 5 
Folklore, exotic, 20, 26 
France's claims in N. A., 65 
Eraser, Simon, 62, 221, 274 
French at "North Sea," Hudson 

Bay, 47 
French colonisation, 18, 19, 28, 30, 

40 
French-English wars, causes of, 64 
French reprisals, 72 
French rights on Hudson Bay, 56 
Friction, French and English, 42 
Frontenac, Gov., 72 
Fruits, 123 
Fur- trade, 18 

Garrisons, 106 

Geological areas, iii 

George III., constitutes and defines 

Canada, 8^ 
Glaciers, 145 

Governments, a contrast, 289 
Governor-General, 295 
Grand Trunk Railway, 179 
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, 186 
Great Lakes, 130 
Great Western Railway, 179 
Greenland, 4, 9, 13 
Grenfell, Rev. W. T., 144 



INDEX 



307 



Groseillier, explorer, 217 
Gunnbjorn, Norse discoverer, 4 

Habitants, 19; traits, 21, 152 

Halifax, 267 

Hennepin, Father Louis, 49 

Hincks, Sir F., 275 

Hochelaga, Montreal, 16 

Hopkins, J. C, "Canadian Ency.," 

271 
House of Commons, 98 
Howley, M. R., R. C. bishop, 12 
Hudson Bay, 57; Jesuits on, 48 
Hudson's Bay Co., 51, 52, 53, 54, 

60, 211, 216, 218 
Hudson, Henry, re-discoverer of 

Bay, 47 

Iberville, attacks on Hudson Bay 
posts, 59 

Iceland, Christianity in, 3 

Immigration, 165 

Independence, not considered, 299 

Indians, 200; Carriers, 227; 
Coast, 227; Sekania, 226; 
taken to France, 39; treatment 
of, 36, 40 

Influence of early Norse discov- 
eries, 6 

Intercolonial Railway, 180 

Interior Central Plateau, wealth, 
112 

Investors, foreign, 164 

Jesuits, 35, 42, 48 

Joliet, Louis, 28 

Justice, administration of, 290 

Karlsefni, Thorfinn, Norse dis- 
coverer, 5 



King of England, interest in 

Canada, 294 
Kingsford, Wm., historian, 262 
Kirke, the brothers, 36 

Labrador, 2, 127, 144 

Lachine massacre, 72 

Laggan, 213 

Lakes, Fraser, 228; Louise, 210; 

Nipigon, 194; of the Woods, 

194; Stuart, 226; Summit, 214; 

Superior, 198 
Lakes and Rivers, 129 
Lallemant, Father Jerome, 49 
La Salle, Robert, 42 
La Tour, Claude de, "baronet" of 

Nova Scotia, 67 
Laurentian Rocks, 128 
Laval, R. C. bishop, 54 
Le Caron, Recollet missionary, 

Legislative council, 89 

Leif Eriksson (Leif Ericsson), 4 

Le Moine, Sir J. M., 262 

Le Moyne family, 43 

Lescarbot, 19 

Louisbourg, 76 

Louisiana and Canada, 44 

Loup garoux, le, 20 

Lucas, Sir C. P., historian, 87 

Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, 61, 221, 

271 
Mackenzie River, basin, 223; 

vegetation, 223 
Macoun, John, 231 
Macpherson, D. L., 278 
McTaggart, 277 
Manitoba, 173, 239, 245, 247; 

derivation of name, 242 



3o8 



INDEX 



Marquette, Father, not a dis- 
coverer, 28 
Merritt, The Hon. W. H., 279 
Mississippi River, discovery, 42 
"Model Province," 245, 247 
Montreal, seat of government, 95 
Mount Royal, Montreal, Hoche- 

laga, 16, 265 
Morice, Rev. A. G., 224 
Mountain Peaks, Assiniboine, 214; 
Lefroy, 211; Logan, 206; Mc- 
Kinley, 206; Natazhat, 206; 
St. Elias, 206; St. Pierre, 212; 
The Saddle, 213; Wrangle, 206 
Mountain region, wealth, 1 13 
Murray, Gen, first provisional gov., 

87 

Navigators, early, 2 

Neutrality, France and England 
in N. A., 69 

New Brunswick, wealth, in 

Newfoundland, discovery, 12; in- 
dependent, i; not the oldest 
Brit, colony, 143 

Norse discoverers, 4, 5; influence, 
6 

North West Company, 61, 63 

North West Mounted Police, 104, 
147, 209 

Northern grain and fruit sections, 
117 

Northern St. Lawrence basin, 199 

Nova Scotia wealth, in 

Ontario, etc., wealth, 112 
Original elements of Dominion, 96 
Ottawa, 94, 250, 267 

Papal Bull defined, 3 



Parker, Sir Gilbert, 262 
Parkman, Francis, 27 
"Patriots' Rebellions," 95 
Phipps, Adl., Sir Wm., 74 
Pont-Grav6, 19 
Portuguese discoveries, 14 
Poutrincourt, Gov., 19 
Present government, 99 
Provincial governments, 100 
Provisional districts, 97 
Public lands, how acquired, 165 

Qualifications for civil oJB5ce, 86 
Quebec, 36, 68, 81, 261 
Quebec, Act of, 1774, 88 

Radisson, P.-E., 48, 55, 217 
Railways, 178; development, 133 
Rapids, St. Lawrence River, 202 
Razilli, Isaac de, 70 
Reciprocity with U. S., 281, 282, 

284, 286 
"Red Man," derivation of term, 

37 

ReHgious liberty, 86 

Representative institutions, de- 
velopment of, 91 

Responsible government, 292 

Richelieu, Cardinal, 67 

Riel, Louis, his rebellion, 240 

Roberval, 17, 28 

Roche perce, le, 24 

Rocky Mountains, 206; scenery, 
129; in winter, 258 

Rogers, Maj. A. B., 278 

Roman Catholic missionaries, 33 

Ross, The Hon. John, 277 

Royal William, S.S., 279 

Rupert, Prince, 51 

Ryswick, Treaty of, 74 



INDEX 



309 



Saguenay River, 203 

St. John, town, 264 

St. Lawrence River, 192, 201, 257; 

discovery, 15 
Saga of Eric the Red, 5 
Salmon, 146 

Saskatchewan Province, 174 
Scenery on Great Lakes, 196 
Schenectady, assault, 72 
School houses, 173 
Senators, 97 
Settlers, early, 240 
"Seven Cities," Island of, 9 
Sherman, Gen. W. T., 230 
Simpson, Sir George, 274 
Skating, 256 
Smith, Donald A., Lord Strath- 

cona and Mt. Royal, 221 
Snowsheds, 258 
Snowshoeing, 254 
Snow sports, 252 
Social life in winter, 259 
Soncino, Raimondo di, 10 
Successful labour, 170 
Suite, Benjamin, 20, 48 
Summer expedition, 131 
Stefansson, V., recent explorer, 8 
Stories, Chateau le grand, 22; 

Le Roche perce, 24 

Talon, Royal Intendant, 50 
Tardiness in evangelising, 32 
"The Barren Grounds," 222 
"The Fourteenth Colony," 91 



Thirteen Colonies and Canada, 150 
Thompson, David, 62 
Thousand Islands, 202 
Thunder Bay, 197 
Timber, 125; line, 207, 211 
Tobogganning, 253 
Toronto, 96 

Tourist in Rocky Mts., 208 
Travelling in eastern Canada, 142 
Treaty of 1783, Paris, 155, 150 

United Empire Loyalists, 159 
Utrecht, Peace of, 74 

Vancouver, 270 

Vancouver, Capt. George, 274 

Van Home, Sir William, 278 

Varennes, P.-G., 45 

Verendrye, discoverer of Rocky 

Mts., 45 
Victoria, Fort Comosun, 269 
Vineland, 9 

War, 1744-48, 76; 1753-63, 82; 

of American Independence, 89, 

153; of 1812, 92, 161 
Western exploration, 41 
Wheat crops, 231, 233, 236, 243 
Wheat regions, 120 
Wilcox, Walter D., 210 
Winnipeg policeman, 244 
Winter in Canada, 249 

Yeigh, Frank, 148 



OCT 20 1918 



